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ABOUT GRANT 



A 



T 

JOHN L^SWIFT 



J/A.4L 

BOSTON 
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK 
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 




l88o 



CofT 



Copyright, 1880, 
By LEE AND SHEPARD. 



All rights reserved. 



AN INTRODUCTORY WORD. 



A life of Grant tells us, that, when a boy twelve years 
of age, he was driving in Kentucky a pair of horses 
attached to a light wagon in which were two young 
women. In crossing White Oak Creek, the back-water 
of the Ohio had so swollen the stream, that the party 
found itself afloat in the middle of the flood. The 
women became alarmed, and shouted vigorously for 
assistance. 

The boy, in perfect self-possession, said, " Keep quiet : 
I'll take you through safe." 

He did so ; and from that time on he was conspicuous 
for coolness, judgment, and signal readiness in emer- 
gency. 

The first battle of significance fought in the great 
American civil conflict, of sufficient importance to change 
public opinion here and elsewhere, was won by him when 
thirty-nine years of age. 

This victory, following as it did a prolonged season of 
almost uninterrupted disaster to our arms, introduced 
to the world this principal hero of the war of the Rebel- 

3 



4 AN INTRODUCTORY WORD. 

lion, one of the very few who have rendered illustrious the 
nineteenth century. 

To show his important share in the momentous events 
through which the nation has passed since 1861, and to 
present some of the reasons why millions of the Ameri- 
can citizens whose fidelity to the flag never faltered 
regard him as the true leader in the grave emergency 
depending on the election of 1880, this book is written 
about Grant. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 
I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 
V. 
VI. 
VII. 
VIII. 
IX. 
X. 
XL 
XII. 
XIII. 
XIV. 
XV. 
XVI. 
XVII. 
XVIII. 
XIX. 
XX. 
XXI. 
XXII. 
XXIII. 



First Year of the War 

The First Great Victory 

The First Re-action . 

Under a Cloud . 

A Blow that told 

What Vicksburg settled 

Closing the Gaps 

The Fire in the Rear 

Union Ballots and Union Bullets 

The Vanquished Chief 

The Vanished Capital 

Breaking Ranks . 

First Attempt to " Clasp 

Ad Interim Secretary . 

The Changed Constitution 

Grant's Hardest Battle 

The Besotted Nation 

The Old Fight in a New Form 

The War Dollar 

The Fiat Dollar 

The Honest Dollar 

Imperialism . 

Grant Abroad . 



PAGE 

9 

15 

20 

25 

3 2 

40 

47 
5 2 
56 

65 
69 

72 

77 

83 
88 

97 
104 
114 
127 
132 
136 
*45 
J 53 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER pAGE 

XXIV. His Welcome Home 163 

XXV. The Peril of Solidity 173 

XXVI. The Battle and the Battle-Ground . . 184 

XXVII. The National Need, — "A Strong Man" . 192 



GRANT AND THE TURNING TIDE 
OF WAR. 



" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is 
the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. 
You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You 
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government; while I 
have the most solemn one to ' preserve, protect, and defend it.' " — 
Abraham Lincoln : First Inaugural. 

" I don't know any thing about making speeches ; that is not in my 
line : but we are forming a company in Galena, and mean to do what we 
can for putting down the Rebellion. If any of you feel like enlisting, I 
will give you all the information and help I can." — Grant's First Speech. 



ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER I. 

FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

"The fall of Sumter was the resurrection of 
patriotism." The news came as "if a mighty 
thunderbolt had been launched from the hand of 
the Omnipotent " to startle the torpor of the re- 
public. It banished the compromising tone which 
had prevailed, and evoked a sense of responsibility 
and manhood beyond the calculations of the most 
sanguine patriot. Yet, from the hour that an 
alien flag "flaunted" over this conquered fortress, 
steadily, with a uniformity that tested the endur- 
ance of the American people to the utmost, de- 
feat by superior strategy, and constant mishap, 
had attended every loyal military effort. The 
seventy-five thousand men who with alacrity re- 
sponded to the call of Abraham Lincoln to " re- 
possess the forts, places, and property taken from 
the Union by the rebels," like snow under a tropi- 

9 



IO ABOUT GRANT. 

cal sun had melted away in the hot blaze of civil 
struggle, without a sign of final success. 

The hasty and unjustifiable proclamation in 
which France had joined with England in bestow- 
ing recognition to armed bands of slave-owners 
seeking to destroy a friendly government had 
made again apparent the fact that the shopkeep- 
ing instincts of Great Britain shaped her foreign 
policy. To see a country that had boasted over 
the liberation of its own slaves indirectly though 
deliberately throw its moral weight on the side of 
an attempt to found a nation on the right of one 
race to own and enslave another, had, in the lan- 
guage of Minister Adams, " made a most unfavor- 
able impression upon right-minded statesmen and 
philanthropic Christians everywhere." While this 
abandonment of the principles of religion for the 
precepts of commerce had shocked those who 
looked to England for a higher example of justice 
and duty, it also augmented the severe burdens of 
the republic, and in some aspects was a more diffi- 
cult question to adjust than to repair or overcome 
the damage to our cause in the field. 

In July, 1 86 1, occurred the battle of Bull Run, 
with a result so lamentable to the national side, 
that no American can turn back without pain to 
the remembrance of that scene of holiday folly 
which marked the morning of the fatal day, or 
recall without a blush that sad sunset which saw 
the mad, impetuous flight of the lately proud 
American army. 



FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. n 

The bitterest moment, however, that Northern 
hearts ever knew was not when they heard of 
prisoners taken at Bull Run by the thousands, 
and of the reprehensible conduct of incompetent 
officers, or of the promiscuous race for the rear 
between civilians who left their hampers behind 
them and the soldiers who threw away their 
knapsacks, or in the destruction of the first real 
army that had been sent out with great hope ; but 
when the chief traitor patronizingly implored the 
rebel masses to pity the North, and "never be 
haughty to the humble," then the iron entered 
deep into the loyal soul. Though the army re- 
treated at Bull Run, patriotism did not. Before 
the end of July, in sight of our beaten army at 
full run, it was voted through the national repre- 
sentatives to fight on for the cause with more 
men by hundreds of thousands, and more money 
by hundreds of millions. 

The death of Lyon and the prevalence of disas- 
ter in Missouri ; dangerous complications in Ken- 
tucky ; a most disheartening repulse at Ball's Bluff, 
inflicting a national calamity in the loss of Baker, 
an eminent statesman and brave soldier ; " The 
Trent " affair, almost provoking foreign interfer- 
ence ; repeated ill success at the front ; political 
divisions at the North, beginning a baleful career 
of disorder ; chaos in values ; the rise of the specu- 
lative spirit ; the separation of the people into two 
parties, — one trusting government with money, 
the other denying the capacity of the government 



12 ABOUT GRANT. 

to fulfil its obligations ; credit trembling in the 
balance ; heavy loans put on the market ; gold dis- 
appearing ; the public pride smarting under the 
domineering tone of the English Government in 
its mercenary diplomacy ; vacant chairs around 
loyal hearthstones and firesides ; insignia of 
mourning everywhere in sight ; — all this, without 
an instance of successful leadership or any vic- 
tory to cheer the tried energy and resolution of 
the Union element, or to compensate severe loss 
of life and treasure, was the dismal record of the 
first nine months of the Rebellion. 

The beginning of the year 1862 saw treason 
elated with its conquests, — the South full of hope, 
and animated with military renown ; while loyalty, 
with no inspiration of military success, struggled 
against a ceaseless flood-tide of misfortune. 

The battle of Belmont was fought by Grant as 
brigadier-general of volunteers in November, 1861. 
At the time the country thought the affair a failure, 
and Grant was regarded with distrust, although 
the success of the movement was complete and 
in accordance with his plan. It protected an 
operation of our army that the enemy designed to 
check, and changed the latter's campaign in Mis- 
souri from aggressive to defensive ; but the main 
value of this movement was in its development of 
the character and qualities of the coming chief 
of our armies. The perfect management of his 
command, the individual coolness and observance 
of the situation which make retreat equal to vie- 



FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 



13 



tory, the gift of laconic expression, — a rare char- 
acteristic of the rarest soldiers, — the display of 
an inflexible will united with a discreet judgment, 
were the revelations of the contest at Belmont. 

A striking feature of the character of Gen. 
Grant is reserved power. Where circumstances 
are the least favorable and the most involved, he 
is then the clearest in purpose and the strongest 
in resolve. This contingent of internal strength 
in the midst of external difficulty never has de- 
serted him. At Belmont he was in an exceeding- 
ly precarious position. He had fought skilfully, 
and had forced in the rebels and broken up their 
camp, but was in no condition for, and had no in- 
tention of, holding the ground. The re-enforced 
enemy massed upon him. " We are surrounded 
and lost," said one of his alarmed staff. " No," 
said Grant, " we have whipped them once : we can 
whip them again. We cut in : we must cut out." 
At Pittsburg Landing, as his lines were slowly 
but surely being driven back, every step made 
scarlet with heroic blood, Grant was asked what 
arrangements had been made for retreat. " I have 
not given up the idea yet of whipping them," was 
the answer. He held on, and whipped them ; and 
these pithy sayings passed into the language of 
the camp. With regularity that seems at times 
the consequence of special design, the grave mili- 
tary and civil responsibilities devolved upon him 
have presented at their commencement the unfail- 
ing emergency of disadvantage and uncertainty, 



14 ABOUT GRANT. 

to end, by his foresight and indomitable persisten- 
cy, both in personal and national triumph. It was 
when the country had been so strained for months 
that it seemed almost at the point of exhaustion, 
when the patience of Europe concerning the block- 
ade had been pushed to the extreme, and the 
prominent inquiry at home and abroad was, "When 
is this to end ? what evidence is there of conquer- 
ing such a foe ? where are the Northern victo- 
ries ? " that the tide of doubt and disaster was 
turned in favor of our national forces, never to 
change its current till the last vestige of insurrec- 
tion had been swept away. 



THE FIRST GREAT VICTORY. 15 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FIRST GREAT VICTORY. 

Many will remember well the anxiety of those 
waiting for the news on the gloomy night of that 
Sunday when the report came of the taking of 
Fort Donelson. The day had been unusually de- 
pressing, even for that era of suspense and long- 
ing. Suddenly the operator's face shone as he 
heard the click of the telegraph. He read the 
despatch aloud : " Fort Donelson captured with 
the entire force ! " Cheers went up from those 
who heard this announcement ; for the long cata- 
logue of Union defeats had reached its limit. How 
the tidings flew ! People shouted it on the cars 
and in the streets. Door-bells were rung, and to 
the question, — 

"What is it?" 

" Grant has captured Fort Donelson," was the 
answer. 

"Any prisoners ? " 

" Seventeen thousand six hundred and twenty- 
three." 

"Glorious! That wipes out Bull Run. Any 
thing else ? " 

" Seventeen heavy guns, forty-eight field-pieces, 



1 6 ABOUT GRANT. 

twenty thousand small arms, three thousand horses, 
flags, and military stores." 

" Hurrah for Grant ! " was on every loyal tongue. 
And the next morning the people read in detail 
that Grant, after taking Fort Henry prior to his 
great victory at Donelson, had been instructed to 
be very cautious in his advance ; to use the con- 
trabands with pick and shovel in fortifying his 
position; and to feel his way with the "spade" 
with precaution. The people read that Grant, not 
relishing fighting with the spade behind breast- 
works, and chafing under the delay, annoyance, and 
restraint of red tape, determined to " move on the 
enemy's works." They read that Fort Donelson 
had been made by the Confederacy the " strongest 
place in that theatre of operation." Every thing 
that military skill and engineering could do for it 
had been done. To repel attack, the natural posi- 
tion was formidable, and all the appliances of the 
science of war had been added. The people read 
that Grant closed in upon this stronghold on the 
1 2th of February, 1862. They read that on the 
next day an attack by the Union gunboats had 
proved a total failure, and a premature assault on 
the right had been repulsed ; that on the 14th, 
after a counsel of war by the rebel chiefs, a most 
desperate attempt was made to dislodge the 
national forces, and force a way out into the open 
country. So probable was the success of this 
movement at high noon of the 14th, that Pillow 
sent the message, " On the honor of a soldier, the 



THE FIRST GREAT VICTORY. 17 

day is ours." Of this almost accomplished ad- 
verse demonstration, Grant knew nothing until 
nine o'clock of the day it took place. . By request 
of Admiral Foote, he had been in consultation 
with that wounded officer at the gunboats, some 
distance from his own headquarters. The inter- 
view over with Foote, on his return he was in- 
formed of the rebel sortie, and he immediately 
gave orders to attack the rebel right. Meeting 
the troops already engaged, Grant, as the story 
read, found them in much disorder and badly 
broken up. Riding over the field of action, he 
saw the knapsacks of the enemy's dead packed with 
several days' rations. With that insight into the 
minutest details which belongs to instinctively 
military natures, he deciphered the rebel intention. 
" They are trying to escape. Armies don't come 
out to fight with three days' provisions. Which- 
ever party makes the attack will win the day, and 
the rebels will have to move quickly to beat me," 
said Grant. The command was given to the en- 
couraged troops " to advance along the whole line." 
Foote was telegraphed to "to steam up, and to make 
pretence of renewing attack." The ground and 
guns lost in the morning were recaptured, and the 
enemy was forced back. And, with tears of joy fill- 
ing their loyal eyes, the people read of the closing 
charge, in the late afternoon, that ploughed through 
the abattis, scaled the heights, and burst upon the 
whole rebel line with a force that " nothing human 
could resist," securing a Union victory which the 



1 8 ABOUT GRANT. 

generalship of Grant and the bravery of his men 
had wrested from a nearly irrevocable defeat. And 
as the story concluded with the record of the rebel 
chieftains passing the night swapping the dignity 
and honor of their command, — Floyd resigning to 
Pillow, and Pillow giving up to Buckner, who stood 
his ground while the outranking generals slid 
away under the cover of darkness, with a brigade 
as escort, and two steamboats as means of deliv- 
ery ; and as the ringing words of Grant in answer 
to the condition of surrender, which have become 
a proverb with the nation, finished this full chapter 
of glory, — the people by the millions, who thus 
read, hailed with joy the man and the movement 
which after so many weary months had given a 
victory so overwhelming and important that it 
became the harbinger of ultimate triumph for the 
republic. It was a victory of such dimensions as 
to attract world-wide consideration ; and it settled 
in the American mind the fact, that a new man 
was on the stage, and a new era had begun. 
Flags waved from every house ; hymns were 
chanted in every church ; and guns boomed from 
deck and fort in commemoration of the event. 
Press united with pulpit to swell the chorus of 
praise. The despatch from Boston to Grant — 
"That the furore of jubilation was never equalled 
in the memory of living men" — expressed the 
universal popular sentiment. The lightning that 
informed Lincoln of the capture of Donelson bore 
back the next instant to its conqueror a commis- 



THE FIRST GREAT VICTORY. 19 

sion as major-general of volunteers, showing the 
correctness of Grant's own words addressed to his 
soldiers : " The men who fought that battle will 
live in the memory of a grateful people." 



2 Q ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE FIRST RE-ACTION. 

This blow was felt not only with force upon the 
fortunes of the Confederacy, but had no small 
share in shaping diplomatic action abroad. The 
humiliation of the South was reflected in the state- 
ment of Forrest, a Southern general : " Grant 
landed with a petty force of fifteen thousand men 
in the very centre of a force of nearly forty-five 
thousand having the interior lines for concentra- 
tion and command, by railway at that, and was 
able to take two heavy fortifications in detail, and 
place Jwrs de combat nearly fifteen thousand of the 
enemy." The effect of this remarkable victory 
upon the North was incalculable. The bravery of 
that section had long been demonstrated. The 
willingness to give life and treasure for the flag 
had never been in dispute from the start. The 
growing question was, " Is all this sacrifice of any 
account ? or are we pouring out our life-blood and 
our treasure in vain ? " In a single day a victory 
worthy of the most brilliant tactician gave an 
answer that assured our destiny. Europe was 
compelled to forbear from wholesale depreciation 
of the Northern campaign, and to study the con- 



THE FIRST RE- ACTION. 21 

sequences of the conquest of Donelson. Inspir- 
ing the loyal portion with a sense of unbounded 
cheer; staggering the enemy in his council as 
well as his camp; furnishing the speech of the 
common people with new terms of expression that 
became a vernacular of victory, — this grand tri- 
umph brought the captor into such prominence, 
that men began to ask, " Has the appointed deliv- 
erer come ? " From the sea to the frontier every 
loyal household breathed with more freedom as 
it felt the tide at last had turned, and was now 
setting resistlessly forward to the supremacy of 
the nation over its deadly assailants. 

With this notable re-action of public sentiment 
towards the Union cause, the formidable emer- 
gency of protracted discouragement was success- 
fully encountered. 



GRANT AND THE SEVERED CON- 
FEDERACY. 



" We have collected an immense siege-park. All the world is expecting 
us to begin, and up to this moment the guns are standing idle. It has 
certainly damaged us with the neutral powers. The effect of the success of 

Sedan has been lessened quite enormously in consequence." — Bismarck. 

\ 

" It was such as Montchenu who made the chief cause of the Revolution. 
Before it such a man as Bertrand, who is worth an army of Montchenus, 
could not be a sons-lieutenant while vieux enfans like him would be gen- 
erals. God help the nation that is governed by such ! In my time most of 
the generals of whose deeds France is so proud sprung from that very 
class of plebeians so much despised by him." — Napoleon. 



CHAPTER IV. 

UNDER A CLOUD. 

His plans of battle, methods of operation, style 
of communication with superiors and departments 
to which he was obliged to report, the personal 
characteristics all so much applauded now, were 
matters of serious objection and denunciation at 
the beginning of Grant's career. 

" I am going to attack Fort Donelson to-mor- 
row." 

" Do you know how strong it is ?" 

" Not exactly. But I think I can take it. At 
all events I can try." 

This sounds well as we scan the words ; but at 
the time it was held to be unmilitary, and poor 
tactics. 

" Where shall I find you ? " 

" Probably at headquarters. If you don't, come 
to the front wherever you hear the heaviest firing." 

We thrill with patriotic response as we read 
that answer to-day ; but, when uttered, it was pro- 
nounced claptrap and bravado. 

" You are up early, general ! " 

"Yes: I got up at two o'clock, and have been 

2 5 



26 ABOUT GRANT. 

working ever since, trying to study out the plans 
of old Pap Price." 

We see in this incident the peculiarities of a 
watchful soldier ; but, before Grant's fame was 
assured, such conversation was held to be very 
undignified, coarse, and inexcusable. Rumors of 
incapacity, suspicions as to unquestioned loyalty, 
damaging insinuations both as to habits and am- 
bitious designs, were not unfrequent before the 
battle of Pittsburg Landing. A crushing blow 
was intended to be made by the Confederacy at 
this place to annihilate Grant in his unintrenched 
position, and was commenced by the Confederate 
generals with every prospect of success. 

Adopting the "forty centuries" air with which 
Napoleon addressed his soldiers at the Pyramids, 
Beauregard said the night before the encounter at 
Pittsburg Landing, "Yonder is the camp of the 
enemy. There we sleep to-morrow night." The 
secrecy of the Confederate attack had been so well 
kept, that our army was virtually caught napping. 
History has it that the first rebel shots surprised 
many at breakfast, some in partial dress, some 
with equipments in disorder, but found none ex- 
pecting an engagement. Grant began to study 
the nature of the movement of the enemy from 
the firing, rather than to give way to his evident 
surprise. Making all preparations to hurry re-en- 
forcements forward, he ordered the ground to be 
held if possible till succor should come. The 
position of our army was excellent, but without 



UNDER A CLOUD. 27 

other than natural defences. Sherman had the 
key of the position, and was clinging to it with 
the grip of death, when Grant came up to consult 
with him. 

"I fear we shall run out of ammunition," said 
Sherman. " Oh," said Grant, " I have provided for 
that ! " But, though the ammunition was provided 
for, the first day, with a persistency of ill fortune 
that became proverbial, was a defeat ; and Beaure- 
gard with his rebels did sleep in the loyal camp 
07ie night. The fighting had been dogged in its 
resistance and deadly in its results on both sides. 

Victory seemed so sure for the rebels, that word 
was sent, "We have this morning attacked the 
enemy in a strong position in front of Pittsburg, 
and after a severe battle of ten hours, thanks to 
Almighty God, gained a complete victory, driving 
the enemy from every position." With Grant it 
is always the " home stretch " that tells. As at 
Donelson, the rebel jubilation was premature. 
" We must fire the first gun to-morrow morning : 
the advantage will be with the attacking party," 
was the order of Grant for the second day's fight 
at Pittsburg. At dawn the guns began to crack. 
During the day two hesitating regiments were per- 
sonally rallied and led into action by Grant. The 
fighting was fiercely stubborn; the generalship 
in action masterly. Re-enforcements coming in 
to settle the issue, the Confederates were driven 
back, the ground was fully recovered, and the rebel 
designs entirely frustrated. It was a narrow escape 



28 ABOUT GRANT. 

from what threatened to be an extermination of 
our army in that locality. Though it did not con- 
clude with the capture of so much of the enemy 
as to utterly cripple him, yet it altered the whole 
phase of the campaign in that section, and was a 
greater victory than was conceded at the moment. 1 
Because unintrenched, Grant was bitterly as- 
sailed in military circles. Said Turenne, "When a 
man has committed no faults in war, he could only 
have been engaged in it a short time." So far as 
military science, through its books and precedents 
taught, the battles of Donelson and Pittsburg, as 
battles, were at fault in many particulars. That 
of Donelson was big with risks. To boldly under- 
take an assault upon a strong natural fortification 
that was aided by great military preparation, with 
less troops to attack than there were inside for 
defence, was in violation of every example and ad- 
vice in war. The battle was fought because Grant 
believed the Confederate officers in command were 

1 Nothing in the literature of war could be more ridiculous than Beau- 
regard's letter, sent by flag of truce, asking permission to bury the Confed- 
erate dead at this battle : "At the close of the conflict yesterday, my 
forces being so exhausted by the extraordinary length of time during which 
they were engaged with yours on that and the previous day, and it being 
apparent that you had received and were still receiving re-enforcements, I 
felt it was my duty to withdraw my troops from the immediate scene of 
conflict .' " Another specimen of rebel war gasconade is the following from 
the same source : " Soldiers of Shiloh and Elkton, we are about to meet 
once more in the shock of battle the invaders of our soil. . . . Let the 
impending battle decide our fate, and add a more illustrious page to the 
history of our revolution, — one to which your children will point with 
noble pride, saying, ' Our fathers were at the battle of Corinth." 1 " After 
this bulletin, his army quietly packed up, and sneaked away without a shot. 






UNDER A CLOUD. 29 

incapable, and because he thought that quickness 
of movement would outweigh every advantage 
against him. Said Buckner, after the surrender, 
" Had I commanded, you would not have reached 
the fort so easily." — " If you had," replied Grant, 
" I should have waited for re-enforcements ; but I 
knew Pillow would never come out of his works to 
fight." The judgment of Grant proved correct, 
and the plan of battle was justified by success. 
In both actions the main principles guiding Grant 
were, " Having assumed the offensive, to maintain 
it at all hazards;" " To take every precaution 
possible for full support of all under command ; " 
"Begin the fighting ; " and "Never to scare" How- 
ever erroneous in other respects, these tactics were 
true to those laws, and were won under them ; but 
they ended in bringing Grant into temporary re- 
tirement and discredit. The scandal-mongers were 
again at their despicable work. Envy, malice, man- 
agement, had full sway ; and, under pretence of 
promotion, Grant was for a season in reality ta- 
booed and ignored, till after his superiors found by 
the evacuation of Corinth that he had at Pittsbunr 

o 

Landing won the entire field in that section. Sit- 
ting idly in his tent, instead of being with his 
command in active service, he wrote to his father, 
" I will go on and do my duty to the very best of 
my ability, and do all I can to bring the war to a 
speedy close. I am not an aspirant for any thing 
at the close of the war. . . . One thing I am well 
aware of : I have the confidence of every man in 



30 ABOUT GRANT. 

my command." Some of the " on-to-Richmond " 
papers of that period, like the independent press 
of this, under the impression that the true way to 
beat your worst enemies is to vilify your best 
friends, hounded Grant incessantly. 

Mortified and wounded at his treatment from 
the papers and from those over him, Grant was 
forced to demand relief from his equivocal relation 
to the army ; and he said in a letter, " I am not 
going to lay off my shoulder-straps until the close 
of the war ; but I should like to go to New Mexico, 
or some other remote place, and have a small 
command out of reach of the newspapers." Hal- 
leck, who had been to the front while Grant was 
reduced to inaction in his tent, — after his eyes 
were open to the superior military wisdom of the 
shelved officer by the extensive manner in which 
he had been fooled, through the enemy's move- 
ments at Corinth, in finding a barren town where 
he had planned to bag an army, — acknowledged 
his mistake as to the importance of the battle of 
Pittsburg Landing. The country, seeing a new 
and alarming emergency before it in the neces- 
sity to counteract the succession of delays and 
disasters in other points, ordered the reinstate- 
ment of Grant on the summoning of Halleck to 
Washington. He had often expressed his willing- 
ness to serve under Sherman with the same readi- 
ness as to have Sherman serve under him ; but 
he felt his compulsory, and to him humiliating, 
retirement deeply. 



UNDER A CLOUD. 31 

He also saw with regret the needless postpone- 
ment of a vigorous campaign, and prolongation 
of movements in a rebellious region, which a 
change of command forced upon the country. 
One of the biographers of Grant remarks, "It 
is pleasant to record, that always after going to 
Washington, as if in atonement for his former 
ungraciousness, Halleck gave to Grant hearty and 
entire support." The same historian observes, in 
connection with this unpleasant experience, that 
" Grant felt keenly the newspaper denunciation 
of which he had been the victim, but very seldom 
alluded to it. Once he said to a Cincinnati cor- 
respondent, — 

"' Your paper has made many false statements 
about me, and, I presume, will continue to do so. 
Go on in that way if you like ; but it is hard treat- 
ment for a man trying to do his duty in the field. 
I am willing to be judged by my acts, but not to 
have them misrepresented or falsified.' " 

It is possible to imagine how these insults and 
suspicions rankled in the brave soul that endured 
them all, and never in the height of his power re- 
membered these acts against their perpetrators ; 
but it can never be known how much it cost this 
country to fight on the most approved principles 
of engineering, or to pursue the supercilious 
methods of the martinets who sometimes hold 
the destinies of nations. 



32 ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER V. 

A BLOW THAT TOLD. 

In March, 1863, three officers stood together 
one midnight, watching strange incidents about 
Port Hudson. They made part of the advance 
which was to co-operate with Farragut in his at- 
tempt to pass fortifications that Jefferson Davis 
shortly before, after personal examination, had pro- 
nounced "impregnable." The formidable bluffs, 
commanding the river for miles in either direction, 
were amply supplied with the best armament for 
defence. Against the fearful fire of these powerful 
batteries, Farragut was at that moment "running 
the gauntlet." The land forces were in the rear 
of Port Hudson, there to divert the enemy, and 
draw a portion of the garrison from operating 
against the fleet. The precise object of the ex- 
pedition no one of the three knew, although 
hearsay gave it that it was in connection with 
Grant's movements above. One of the officers 
in this group had served with Grant in Oregon, 
and the conversation naturally turned upon him. 

It was an extraordinary scene : the air roared 
with the rush of bombs ; the earth trembled 
under the fierce, incessant cannonade ; the heav- 



A BLOW THAT TOLD. 33 

ens were filled with curves of light from busy 
shells ; when an explosion shook the ground for 
miles, and made the air alive with conflagration. 

One of the officers exclaimed, " If the Lord will 
let me live just long enough to find what all this 
is, and what it is about, I shall die happy." 

Morning brought word that Farragut, after a 
most terrible damage to his fleet, including the de- 
struction of the large steamer " Mississippi" by the 
firing of her magazine, and with much loss of life, 
had passed the guns of the enemy, and was on his 
way up the river to communicate with Grant. It 
was the " beginning of the end ; " and what Grant's 
colleague said, in giving an estimate of him, proved 
true : " I don't know what he is up to ; but he z\- 
ways pulls through, and he will come out right." 
Whoever has seen that area of rank, monotonous 
desolation along the borders of the Lower Missis- 
sippi, traversed by sluggish gullies, overspread 
with trackless and treacherous lowlands, the para- 
dise of the centipede, alligator, and mosquito, and 
the terror of living men, will understand why 
Grant made seven abortive attempts upon Vicks- 
burg on the upper side. 

A writer says, "The swamps, forests, jungles, 
bayous, and rivers of this remarkable region are 
the most perfect defence that could be devised for 
important points situated on the highlands which 
lie beyond them. To the army operating along 
the main river they proved to be a perfect barrier ; 
for, although they were frequently penetrated, it 



34 ABOUT GRANT. 

was always with such great labor and loss of time, 
that the rebels, moving by rail or along the better 
roads of the highlands, were enabled to meet our 
forces in superior strength, or to block their way 
by impassable fortifications." 

A/riend, calling one evening, found Grant alone 
in his office, — the ladies' cabin of "The Magnolia." 
He said, — 

" The problem is a difficult one, but I shall cer- 
tainly solve it: Vicksburg can be taken. I shall 
give my days and nights to it, and shall surely take 
it. 

Richardson says of the plan to pass the bat- 
teries, "It was no sudden inspiration. For 
months the general had thought of it as a last 
resort. When he and the staff, three months 
earlier, first visited the Williams Cut-off, Rawlins, 
after contemplating the tiny rill which trickled 
through it, exclaimed, ' What's the use of a canal, 
unless it can be dug at least fifty feet deeper? 
This ditch will never wash out large enough in 
all the ages to admit our steamboats.' Two days 
later, at headquarters, when several generals and 
engineers were considering plans, the staff-officer 
again remarked, 'Wilson and I have a project of 
our own for taking Vicksburg.' — 'What is it?' 
asked Sherman. 'Why, not to dig a ditch, but to 
use the great one already dug by Nature, — the 
Mississippi River; protect our transports with 
cotton-bales, run them by the batteries at night, 
and march the men down the Louisiana shore, 
ready to be ferried across.' ' 



A BLOW THAT TOLD. 35 

The entire fleet passed the Vicksburg batteries 
in April, transporting the army below to operate 
upon the city from the south. At the time when 
the country had become heart-sick of unavailing 
efforts at " fancy" engineering, and of men 
mowed down by the thousand with pestilential 
fevers, and about repulses at Holly Springs and 
Chickasaw Bayou and Yazoo Pass and Miliken's 
Bend, till the courage of the land began to fail, 
and Grant's enemies began to insinuate, " You 
see he's going to fizzle out like all the rest," 
by a sudden desperate and unprecedented move, 
he again lifted the people out of despondency, and 
was once more, after being for months the public 
scapegoat, instantly elevated to the position of a 
public idol. Obtaining valuable information as to 
roads and ground from the faithful negroes, he 
started for his objective point to bag Pemberton. 
On he went, "whipping the rebels beautifully at 
every step," — on to the Big Black, after taking 
Grand Gulf and Port Gibson. Finding himself 
between two wings of the army, — " Pemberton in 
Vicksburg with fifty thousand men on his left," 
and the rebels collecting on the right in unknown 
numbers, — in order to prevent a union of their 
forces, he resolved to cut loose from his base ; and 
giving notice, "I shall communicate with Grand 
Gulf no more, except as it becomes necessary to 
send trains under heavy escort ; you may not hear 
from me for several days," he took a leap forward 
without consultation with his superiors, and prob- 



36 ABOUT GRANT. 

ably against the judgment of a vast majority of 
military men ; certainly in spite of the fears and 
remonstrance of those who fought our battles in 
the war-office at the Capitol. The suspense of the 
nation for the next few days was intense. Millions 
of those now living were then unborn ; and many 
who passed through this period of anxiety and 
waiting have forgotten the tension of expectation 
which made these harrowing days eventful with 
mingled hope and fear. Grant and his army had 
disappeared from public view. Would it be 
ruined, or come forth regnant with glory, was 
the question ? It was a crisis on which hung the 
fate of the republic : and when the intelligence 
came, that Johnston had been outmarched by the 
celerity of Grant, and that Jackson had been oc- 
cupied and destroyed as a military depot for the 
enemy ; and that the most important railway com- 
munications with Pemberton were utterly ruined, 
and conjunction with the fleet above Vicksburg 
secured, and Pemberton, by one of the most suc- 
cessful series of combinations and strategy known 
in war, hemmed in behind his works ; and when 
the account came of the battle of Champion Hills, 
named by its awful sacrifice of brave men " the 
Hill of Death," — the great, beating, loyal heart 
of the country was filled with the commingled emo- 
tions of astonishment, admiration, and love for the 
soldier who seemed capable of every thing but the 
miraculous. 

During the battle of Champion Hills, Grant 



A BLOW THAT TOLD. 37 

received from the bureau at Washington an order 
to make junction with the forces in the Depart- 
ment of the Gulf before moving on Vicksburg. It 
was too late. The work had been done ; and Pem- 
berton's beaten army was pouring back into its 
defences, only to be helplessly trapped and cor- 
ralled. " Until this moment I have never thought 
that your expedition would be a success. I never 
could see the end clearly ; but this is a campaign," 
said the ablest officer next to Grant in the army. 
Vicksburg was encircled from the river above to the 
river below ; and so accurate had been Grant's cal- 
culations, that the investment was consummated in 
exact accordance with his arrangements. Froude 
describes Julius Caesar returning from a campaign 
in' " the light of twenty victories.". If history can 
be depended upon, " Grant's Operations since leav- 
ing New Carthage had rarely been equalled by the 
most illustrious captains of history." 

" In twenty days he had marched two hundred 
miles, and fought five battles ; taking ninety guns, 
capturing six thousand of the enemy, and killing 
and wounding many more. He had destroyed 
Pemberton's communication, stopped him from 
escaping, and finally driven him to the wall. And 
his total loss in killed, wounded, and missing, 
footed up only four thousand." 

And now Grant was compelled to resort to what 
had been the main weapon of some of the leading- 
generals of the army, — the spade. With it he 
made a line of circumvallation to protect his rear, 



38 ABOUT GRANT. 

and with it he began to mine the rebel works that 
two assaults had failed to carry. But famine be- 
gan to smite the doomed city, and the direct 
horrors of war were felt in the besieged enclosure. 
Hunger, disease, poison by malaria, death, revelled 
in that forlorn domain. The days dragged on, — 
dismay within ; slow and tireless digging without. 

" When do you expect to take Vicksburg ? " 
tauntingly asked a female rebel. 

" I can't tell exactly," said Grant ; " but I shall 
stay till I do, if it takes thirty years." 

An intercepted letter contained these words : — 

" We put our trust in the Lord. . . . We ex- 
pect Joe Johnston to come to our relief." 

On reading this, Grant gave orders to march a 
portion of his army, saying to the leader, "They 
seem to put a good deal of trust in the Lord and 
Joe Johnston ; but you must whip Johnston fifteen 
miles from here." 

On the 4th of July, 1863, the "old flag" floated 
over Vicksburg. Rhetoric has no capacity of elo- 
quence equal to the mere statement that the 
" Stars and stripes " waved over the Gibraltar of 
the Confederacy ; and words can add nothing to 
the condensed record of the historian : — 

" In the capitulation Grant received fifteen gen- 
erals, thirty-one thousand six hundred soldiers, 
and one hundred and seventy-two cannon, — the 
greatest capture of men and armament ever made 
at one time since the invention of gunpowder, if 
not since the creation. Adding prisoners pre- 



A BLOW THAT TOLD. 39 

viously taken, his captures since the 1st of May 
were swelled to forty-two thousand and fifty-nine 
men." 

Thirty millions of loyal people thanked God in 
earnest prayer that His almighty wisdom had 
given us such a victory, and a military leader great 
enough to surmount every peril with which he 
had grappled. 



40 ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER VI. 

WHAT VICKSBURG SETTLED. 

Grant once wrote to his father, "The govern- 
ment asks a good deal of me, but not more than 
I feel fully able to perform." Vicksburg settled 
that the country could put no load upon Grant 
that he could not lift. As Donelson settled it 
beyond controversy that the early boast of martial 
superiority on the part of the South was " as 
sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal," so Vicks- 
burg settled several weighty matters that only 
successful battle could determine. It hopelessly 
divided the area of rebellion. The "lordly Mis- 
sissippi " was in loyal control, never again to be 
wrested from us. The granary of the rebel army, 
the source from which its sustenance was mainly 
drawn, was sealed against it. With the Atlantic 
coast blockaded, and the rich pastures and store- 
houses of the trans-Mississippi closed, the Con- 
federacy itself was in a state of siege ; and, with- 
out foreign intervention, its downfall was but a 
question of time. The Confederacy was severed, 
never to be rejoined. Vicksburg vindicated the 
policy of emancipation, and added the mighty 
power of moral greatness to the war. 



WHAT VICKSBURG SETTLED. 41 

This victory had justified the absorption into 
loyal ranks of a race that by the magic of en- 
franchisement was rising in the scale of human 
dignity. It welcomed from the fields of the 
South the black hands that, unpaid, tilled the soil, 
owned as they were by human masters, and placed 
within those swarthy hands muskets that were to 
establish their fitness for freedom and their title 
to manhood. By our thus proclaiming liberty 
universal, and identifying the cause of loyalty 
with the cause of religion and humanity, the 
malicious spirit of our enemies and the vacillating 
spirit of our questionable friends in England were 
alike rebuked, and our cause was strengthened 
throughout the world. 1 

The lofty spirit of devotion to just principles of 
government which guided the pen of Milton, and 
animated the tongue of Hampden, in the days of 

ul Adjutant-Gen. Lorenzo Thomas now came from Washington to 
organize negro regiments. Grant had already paved the way for this in 
obedience to the President's wish that commanders should help remove 
the prejudices of our white troops against them. He had issued an order 
adding three hundred contrabands to the pioneer corps of each division. 

" Grant did nothing in a half-hearted way, but entered zealously into 
the movement, and reported to Halleck, — 

"'At least three of my corps commanders take hold of the new policy 
of arming the negroes, and using them against the enemy, with a will. 
They at least are so much of soldiers as to feel themselves under obliga- 
tions to carry out a policy which they would not inaugurate in the same 
good faith and with the same zeal as if it were of their own choosing. 
You may rely on my carrying out any policy ordered by proper authority 
to the best of my ability.' " 

This extract shows what an important influence on this question came 
out of the necessities of Vicksbursr. 



42 



ABOUT GRANT. 



the Commonwealth ; the sublime sentiment which 
found echo in all true English hearts, that the air 
of England was too pure for any slave to breathe, 
— aroused Englishmen in 1863 to resist the efforts 
of British toryism and British selfishness to inter- 
fere for Southern benefit. The fall of Vicksburg 
insured the final extinction of the slave-owners' 
empire, and linked together the triumph of the 
American flag and the full freedom of the Ameri- 
can slave. A sympathetic spirit was awakened in 
the mother-country, and smote down with right- 
eous indignation all efforts to break the embargo 
on Southern ports. It was no trifling contribution 
to the national cause that Grant at Vicksburg 
settled forever the likelihood of foreign intermed- 
dling with the blockade. We cannot wonder, then, 
that " Grant became henceforth the central figure 
in our military history," or that "the country hailed 
him with unfeigned delight and sincerity as the 
only general who was always successful." 

Lincoln wrote him, " When you turned north- 
ward, east of Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. 
I now wish to make a personal acknowledgment 
that you were right, and I was wrong." 

Amid all the congratulations and honors that 
crowded upon him as hero of Vicksburg, Grant 
maintained a quiet, simple, unostentatious dignity. 
Declining a public ovation tendered him, he con- 
cluded his letter with the patriotic sentiment, "The 
stability of this government and the unity of this 
nation depend solely on the cordial support and 
earnest loyalty of the people." 



WHAT VIC KS BURG SETTLED. 43 

Of all men, living or dead, who have ever con- 
tributed by their acts to uphold the unity and sta- 
bility now represented by our invincible flag, none 
ever did more than Grant by the capture of Vicks- 
burg. Placing on sure ground the non-interven- 
tion of Europe, vindicating the hallowed policy of 
human freedom, raising up the bond race, unfet- 
tering the Father of Waters, and giving it back to 
interstate commerce, it made certain to the calcu- 
lation of the world that the national flag would 
yet wave for a country stronger than when the 
eagles of Rome soared from the " Pillars of Her- 
cules to the walls of Antoninus." 



GRANT AND THE SAVING OF THE 
BORDER. 



" The principle by which my conduct has been actuated through life 
would not suffer me in any great emergency to withhold any services I 
could render required by my country, especially in a case where its dearest 
rights are assailed by lawless ambition and intoxicated power." — Wash- 
ington's Acceptance of the Commission of Lieutenant-General. 

" I accept the commission with gratitude for the high honor conferred 
with the aid of the noble armies that have fought in so many battle-fields 
for our common country. It will be my earnest endeavor not to disap- 
point your expectations. I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now 
devolving upon me ; and I know, if they are met, it will be due to those 
armies, and above all to the favor of that Providence which leads both 
nations and men." — Grant's Speech on receiving Commission as Lieu- 
tenant-General. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CLOSING THE GAPS. 

" I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to in- 
fuse into the army, of criticising their commander and 
withdrawing confidence from him, will now turn upon you. 
I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither 
you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good 
out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now 
beware of rashness ! Beware of rashness ! but, with ener- 
gy and sleepless vigilance, go forward, and give us victories. 
" Yours very truly, 

" A. Lincoln." 

This letter from Abraham Lincoln was written 
to a distinguished general placed at the head of 
the Army of the Potomac. No such caution was 
needed in Grant's case. He had little talk with 
regard to his own or another's military operations. 

" What shall I say to our people, when I return 
home, about the presidency ? " asked one of those 
frisky politicians who consider their utterances as 
very important. 

" Say nothing. I want nothing whatever said," 
was the reply of Grant ; and the same reticence 
marked him in all affairs. A commission as 
major-general in the regular army, personal letters 

47 



48 ABOUT GRANT. 

of thanks from the chief magistrate and the prin- 
cipal military and civil dignitaries, congressional 
and State honors, public eulogiums,' presentations 
of swords from enthusiastic admirers, indicated that 
Grant now, as Washington before him, stood first 
in the hearts of his countrymen. The defeat of 
our army at Chickamauga — at times threatening 
to repeat the holocaust at Stone River — had so 
alarmed government, that Grant was summoned to 
grapple with a new emergency. The gaps through 
which invading bands of guerillas could break and 
overrun the adjacent loyal districts, and the pre- 
carious tenure by which some of the most impor- 
tant military positions in the border States were 
held, gave rise to much apprehension in their im- 
mediate localities, and general dissatisfaction every- 
where. To close these dangerous gaps, and dis- 
lodge the enemy from the border line, was the 
exigency now before Grant. The consolidation of 
all forces east of the Mississippi and west of the 
Alleghanies placed two hundred thousand men 
at his disposal. His first business was to secure 
Chattanooga and relieve Burnside, now in an ex- 
ceedingly embarrassing situation in Knoxville. 
At Chattanooga was an ill-supplied army, crowded 
within a small space, with Burnsi'de two hundred 
miles away in one direction, and Sherman far dis- 
tant in an opposite direction. Placing Thomas in 
the position of the commander lately so disastrously 
defeated, Grant's orders were, — 
" Hold Chattanooga at all hazards." 



CLOSING THE GAPS. 49 

" I will, or starve," was the answer. 

Grant arrived at Chattanooga in October, 1863. 
Missionary Ridge, three miles away, covered the 
place. The rebels outnumbered Grant, and were 
in the full flush of a late victory. Hills in front, a 
river at their back, rescue or escape alike improba- 
ble, — such was the deplorable state in which Grant 
found his cooped-up army at Chattanooga. His 
forces under Hooker, as usual in advance, had 
seized the most commanding situation, which held 
fast the railroad communicating with the supplies. 
This sharp, quick action put Bragg on the defen- 
sive, and gave Grant an opportunity for aggressive 
movement. The former had sent Longstreet to 
attack Burnside. "Lose most of your army be- 
fore retreating: hold the line from Knoxville to 
Clinton seven days, and the Tennessee Valley can 
be saved," was the message sent to Burnside. 
Then Grant concluded to save Knoxville by fight- 
ing Bragg. The only defence Grant believed in 
was attack. There were few darker days in the his- 
tory of our struggle than these before Chattanooga. 
Grant, however, had faith that Burnside would 
hold on, and that Sherman would make connection 
in time. In both opinions he was correct. The 
gallant fighting and the glorious victories at Look- 
out Mountain and Missionary Ridge are too famil- 
iar to need description here. The battle of Chat- 
tanooga is regarded as a most remarkable military 
contest. Such was the strength of the enemy's 
position, that Grant said, "A line of skirmishers 



50 ABOUT GRANT. 

properly handled should have held it." The field 
of operation was an amphitheatre, and in all prob- 
ability " no battle was ever fought more completely 
under the eye of the commander." As one histo- 
rian says, " Hooker drew attention to the right. 
Sherman compelled the enemy to mass just as had 
been designed, and .Thomas was made to attack 
the centre at the critical moment ; and more than 
the results hoped for were accomplished. Armies 
were moved to fight this battle from the Missis- 
sippi and the Potomac> and came upon time ; 
mountains were climbed ; rivers bridged and 
crossed under fire ; ridges scaled, though held by 
hostile armies ; and the enemy himself took his 
part in the plan exactly as had been foreseen, as 
if he had been under the orders of Grant." It 
sent Bragg flying in retreat, and was the last heard 
of him. It closed every avenue then open to in- 
vasion, shut up the "last gap," and delivered the 
border from danger by raising the siege of Knox- 
ville, and, relieving the hard-pressed forces of Burn- 
side, drove the last hostile flag in that vast section 
forever beyond the sight of loyalty. Recognizing 
that he had gone on in an unbroken march of tri- 
umph from the first great national victory at 
Donelson ; had liberated the great inland highway 
of waters and all its important tributaries ; and 
had annihilated three separate rebel armies, — the 
nation demanded that Grant should be raised to 
the chief command with a military title never 
given by the republic but to one, " and that one, 






CLOSING THE GAPS. ^ 

Washington." Grant was esteemed by his grate- 
ful countrymen the only soldier worthy to bear for 
the second time the honors of Lieutenant-General 
of' the Armies of the United States. 



52 ABOUT GRANT, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FIRE IN THE REAR. 

It was said by an influential Northern Demo- 
cratic paper, " If troops shall be raised in the North 
to march against the people of the South, afire in 
the rear will be opened on such troops, which will 
either stop their march altogether or wonderfully 
accelerate it." Later this treasonable "fire in the 
rear" came. The rebellion would never have 
touched the point of armed resistance, but for the 
expectation of sufficient Democratic support to 
forbid actual war. The doctrine of State rights, 
the corner-stone of American Democracy, led 
legitimately to the principle of ultimate supremacy 
in local government. Secession was the logical 
result of the theory that final authority was with 
the State. If the Democratic school was constitu- 
tionally correct in holding that the dissolution of 
government was in the hands of a section rather 
than of the nation, — if a part could break up the 
whole, — then every shot fired by the South was 
right, and every shot sent back by the North was 
wrong. The sole difference between the Northern 
and the Southern Democrat was, the one had the 
courage to fight for his convictions ; the other 



THE FIRE IN THE REAR. 53 

had not. The South's glaring mistake was in 
trusting the pledges, and relying on the co-opera- 
tion, of Northern Democracy. When it came to 
the pinch, the Northern end gave out. The action 
of the South was honorable and pure in compari- 
son with the craven behavior of its allies in the 
North. The peace men in the loyal States were 
poltroons as well as traitors. The South risked 
lives and property for an idea. Peace men in the 
North, sympathizing with that idea, without care 
or thought for the country in its struggle for exist- 
ence, were simply white-livered re-actionists : keep- 
ing out of bodily harm, they were content to 
smirk with joy when the national flag trailed in 
the dust. The course of the government in eman- 
cipating and in arming blacks gave the peace 
Democrat opportunity to style the contest "a nig- 
ger war." The negro of that day, as is the China- 
man of this, was the special object of hatred by 
the naturalized alien race which makes so large a 
part of the Democracy of the North. To such 
prominence had the peace party risen in 1863, that 
it became the main auxiliary of the rebellion. 
Vanquished at the front by veteran, loyal legions, 
disloyalty saw that its drooping fortunes must be 
revived in the treason which worked to divide 
politically the North. By secret orders parading 
nightly as " Sons of Liberty " and " Knights of 
the Golden Circle ; " by boldly forming and arm- 
ing military bands wherever Democratic senti- 
ment was in the ascendant ; by mobocratic resist- 



54 ABOUT GRANT. 

ance to the laws in Democratic strongholds; by 
predatory bands of desperadoes threatening vio- 
lence in the borders ; by avowed declarations of 
opposition to conscription ; by base appeals to pas- 
sion from an Ex-President of the United States, 
who designated the loyal conflict as the " mailed 
hand of military usurpation in the North striking 
down the liberties of the people ; " by these acts of 
treachery, together with peace talk in the high- 
ways and popular assemblies, the "fire in the rear" 
rekindled the flickering embers of treason in the 
South by the blaze of such fuel as burning orphan 
asylums. The despair of the retreating rebel was 
turned to joy by shrieks of helpless black children 
pursued by the peace Democrat in riotous demon- 
stration against the loyal draft. The peace con- 
spiracy was wide-spread and elaborately planned. 1 

On the Democratic standards of the North the 
bewildered gaze of- treason was now fastened. 
As the banners of the foe went down before 
the tramp of our armies, his cause rose wherever 

1 "The first blow — the signal for uprising — was to be struck at 
Chicago during the sittings of the Democratic Convention, when eight 
thousand Confederate prisoners, confined in Camp Douglas, near that city, 
were to be liberated and armed by the rebel refugees from Canada there 
assembled, and five thousand sympathizers with the conspirators, and 
members of the treasonable league, resident in Chicago. Then the Con- 
federate prisoners at Indianapolis were to be released and armed, and the 
hosts of the Knights of the Golden Circle were to gather at appointed 
rendezvous to the number of full one hundred thousand men. This force, 
springing out of the earth as it were, in the rear of Grant and Sherman, 
would, it was believed, compel the raising of the siege of Richmond and 
Atlanta, and secure peace on the basis of the independence of the ' Con- 
federate States.' " 



THE FIRE IN THE REAR. 55 

a Democratic caucus or convention gathered. 
Guided by the light of history, it is safe to say, 
that, in all that makes man respect his fellow-man, 
the war rebel of the South stands, in the estima- 
tion of the world, far in advance of the peace 
Democrat of the North. 



56 ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER IX. 

UNION BALLOTS AND UNION BULLETS. 

Grant had said, in concluding one of the most 
comprehensive military reports ever written, that 
his object was "to hammer continuously against 
the armed force of the enemy and his resources, 
until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there 
should be nothing left to him but an equal sub- 
mission, with the loyal section of our common 
country, to the Constitution and laws of the 
land." That he regarded it as essential that pub- 
lic opinion should second the hammering process 
is proved by the following letter : — 

" I have no doubt but the enemy are exceedingly anxious 
to hold out until after the presidential election. They have 
many hopes from its effects. They hope a counter-revolu- 
tion ; they hope the election of the peace candidate ; in 
fact, like Micawber, they hope for 'something to turnjip.' 
Our peace friends, if they expect peace from separation, are 
much mistaken. It would be but the beginning of war, 
with thousands of Northern men joining the South, because 
of our disgrace in allowing separation. To have peace on 
any terms, the South would demand the restoration of their 
slaves already freed. They would demand indemnity for 
losses sustained, and they would demand a treaty which 
would make the North slave-hunters for the South. They 



UNION BALLOTS AND UNION BULLETS. 57 

would demand pay, or the restoration of every slave escap- 
ing to the North. 

(Signed) 

" U. S. Grant." 

As lieutenant-general, Grant had not only to 
face the schemes of the peace Democracy strain- 
ing to embitter public sentiment and embarrass 
the North, but the Army of the Potomac exhibited 
something of a divided attachment, and looked 
with distrust, if not discontent, upon its new 
commander. That noble army had in it the best 
fighting qualities ; for it had been pitted against 
the ablest general the South had put in the field. 
Under various chiefs it had dashed against Lee, 
but only, as the waves dash against a rock, to roll 
back, as it were, exhausted with vain effort. 
These battles had made the soil of Virginia a 
vast burial-ground of heroes; but no victory 
had yet crowned our arms on that bloody arena. 
Antietam had forced the invader from Maryland, 
and Gettysburg had hurled the great leader of 
treason back to his lair in distress and disappoint- 
ment, without decisive results. Still the Army 
of the Potomac blazoned with deeds of valor ; and 
its scarred veterans loved, with no common affec- 
tion, their old commanders. The familiar names 
were dear to them, and it was not with altogether 
satisfied hearts they saw the Western hero rise 
above their favorite generals. Grant knew and 
felt the difficulties and discomfort of the situation. 
He knew also that the rebellion would never be 



58 ABOUT GRANT. 

crushed until one thing had been done that had 
never yet been done, — to whip Lee effectually. 
This finishing business did not begin auspiciously. 
No other sensation but utter dismay is possible, as 
we turn back to these perilous hours. The first 
movement upon Petersburg had collapsed, for 
causes unexplained to this day. The march from 
the Wilderness to Cold Harbor was attended by 
such wailing of sad hearts, such " hecatombs of 
slaughter," as the world rarely hears or sees. 
The abandonment of the attempt to fight Lee 
longer north of Richmond ; the change of plan 
by investment of the Southern capital, and its iso- 
lation from the Confederacy;, the skurry and panic 
at Washington at the approach of Early to its 
line of fortifications, — had tended to dishearten 
the stoutest trust of patriotism, and to demoralize 
the condition of the entire country. The debt had 
swollen to eighteen hundred millions of -dollars. 
Gold had ballooned to two eighty-five, — the high- 
est figure reached during the war, — and the land 
seemed to reel under its heavy load. Above all 
the sorrow of a great people in sore travail, above 
the shots of contending armies, above all other 
wrangling and confusion, could be heard the 
hoarse croaking and hollow mockery of the Demo- 
cratic marplots in national convention assembled : 
" Stop the fight ! the war is a failure" 

Grant was impressed that the national cause 
needed the momentum of a victory. 

The election of a President and a new Congress 



UNION BALLOTS AND UNION BULLETS. 59, 

was impending. Lost to the Union side, the 
Union itself would be lost. He felt that his best 
contribution to loyalty would be in fresh success. 
Success came. Sheridan had been told by Grant 
to "go in," and try his hand in the valley of the 
Shenandoah. He went in, and whirled an army 
glutted with conquest back in grievous rout l and 
confusion ; giving to the world a story that will 
live while men admire heroic action, and women 
sing of daring and bravery. „ Before the famous 
ride of Sheridan, the loyal ear had been electrified 
and the loyal heart gladdened with the news, 
"Atlanta has fallen." 

The Vice-President of the Southern Confeder- 
acy had said, after reading the proceedings of the 
peace Democracy at their National Convention at 
Chicago, " It is the first ray of light I have seen 
from the North since the war began. I feel like 
exclaiming, ' Hail, holy light!'" But, while trai- 

1 " After a campaign of four months, Sherman had reached the goal 

' assigned him, and now occupied a position in the very heart of the rebel 

dominions, eating out its richest products, intercepting communication, 

and standing ready to push forward with his mighty host towards Virginia 

or to the Atlantic sea-coast. 

" The great advantage of his victory was, however, that it enabled 
Grant to move Sherman towards himself, thus interposing a powerful 
army between Lee and the rebel forces in the South-West, while the rebel 
railroad system should be completely destroyed. With the Army of the 
Potomac investing Petersburg, and Sherman's hundred thousand veterans 
at Atlanta, Grant felt that the days of the rebellion were numbered ; for, 
although the armed forces of the enemy had not yet been destroyed, they 
had been outgeneraled, and henceforward, although they might struggle 
bravely to retrieve their fallen fortunes, they were destined to gather noth- 
ing but the bitter fruits of disappointment." 



60 ABOUT GRANT. 

tors at the South were thus hailing the treasona- 
ble glimmer made by their brethren at the North, 
the President had, by proclamation, ordered salutes 
of one hundred guns at all military and naval 
arsenals, and advised the people to give common 
thanks at their respective places of public wor- 
ship the ensuing sabbath to commemorate the 
victories of Farragut at Mobile, and the victory 
of Sherman at Atlanta. A few weeks after 
these glorious tributes to the national cause were 
rendered, the great body of the American people 
went to the polls, and so cast their suffrages, 1 that, 
by overwhelming majorities, Union ballots upheld 
the flag for which thousands had fallen, and around 
which a million of armed men now stood ready 

1 The result of the presidential election gave great joy to all the true 
friends of the Union at home and abroad. That election was waited for 
with the greatest anxiety by millions of men. A thousand hopes and 
fears were excited. Vast interests hung upon the verdict ; and for a while 
in our country every thing connected with trade and manufactures seemed 
to be stupefied by suspense. Geld, the delicate barometer of commercial 
thought, fluttered amazingly as the hour of decision drew nigh. At 
length the result was announced. 

Principle had triumphed over expediency. The nation had decided 
by its calmly expressed voice, after years of distressing war, and with the 
burden upon its shoulders of a public debt amounting to two thousand 
million dollars, to fight on, and put down the rebellion, at any cost. A 
load was lifted from the great loyal heart of the republic. Congratula- 
tions came over the sea like sweet perfumes ; and out of the mouths of 
the dusky toilers on the plantations of the South went up simple, fervid 
songs of praise to God for this seal of their deliverance. For the election 
had surely proclaimed "liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabit- 
ants thereof." 

By it the hopes of the conspirators were blasted. They well knew the 
power that slumbered behind that vote, and which would now be awak- 
ened in majestic energy. 



UNION BALLOTS AND UNION BULLETS. 6 1 

to give their lives. The guns of the soldier and 
the votes of the citizen told against the common 
enemies of the nation, — the Confederate army 
and the Democratic party. 



GRANT AND THE "LOST CAUSE.' 



u It is for us, the living, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work 
that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here 
dedicated to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of 
devotion ; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in 
vain ; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom ; and 
governments of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth." — Lincoln at Gettysburg. 

" Your enemy continues a struggle in which our final triumph must be 
inevitable. Unduly elated with their recent successes, they imagine that 
temporary reversion can quell your spirits or shake your determination ; 
and they are now gathering heavy masses for a general invasion, in the 
vain hope that by desperate efforts success may at length be reached. 
You know too well, my countrymen, what they mean by success. Their 
malignant rage aims at nothing less than the extermination of yourselves, 
your wives, and your children. They seek to destroy what they cannot 
plunder. They propose as spoils of victory that your homes shall be 
partitioned among wretches whose atrocious cruelty has stamped infamy 
upon their government." — Jefferson Davis: Address read to Lee's 
Soldiers after Gettysburg and Vicksburg. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE VANQUISHED CHIEF. 

" When Sherman penetrated to the Atlantic coast, and 
accomplished his wonderful march, Grant, who had con- 
ceived the idea of that march, and taken all of its respon- 
sibility, was still sitting quietly in front of Petersburg; and 
the country rang with applause for the brilliant lieutenant, 
affording no share of this to the chief who had sent the lieu- 
tenant on his errand, and, by his other movements a thou- 
sand miles away, had rendered the success of the lieutenant 
possible. It was even purposed in Congress to place Sher- 
man in the rank which Grant enjoyed. Sherman wrote on 
the subject at once to Grant, saying that the proposition was 
without his knowledge, and begging Grant to use his influ- 
ence against it. This, of course, Grant refused to do, and 
replied to Sherman, ' If you are put above me, I shall always 
obey you, just as you always have me.' The history of the 
world may be searched in vain to find a parallel of mag- 
nanimity, friendship, and patriotism." — Cainpaign Life. 

This transfer of confidence on the part of the 
people was, if it existed, but a momentary impulse. 
Grant, during his seeming inactivity, had been 
arranging for the final blow. Thomas, Sherman, 
Sheridan, had been given special work bearing on 
one result, — the fall of Richmond and capitulation 
of Lee. Every means of escape, all communica- 

65 



66 ABOUT GRANT. 

tion with the rest of the Confederacy, was cut off 
and destroyed : our armies were drawn together, 
making a circle of steel around the beleaguered 
capital and the harassed chief. So carefully and 
completely had Grant mapped out his last cam- 
paign, that, after a long season of toil over his 
charts, diagrams, and plans, while at private quar- 
ters in New York, it is said that he gave a pass 
dated months ahead to an intimate friend, one of 
the stanchest loyalists in the nation, granting ad- 
mission to his headquarters in the field ; telling 
him, if he reported at the time mentioned, he would 
see the fall of Richmond. The city was evacuated 
at the exact date of this most extraordinary pass. 

On the 25th of March, 1865, Lee made an assault 
on Grant's lines. One of the general officers far 
to the front was visited by Grant with the request 
to be put as near as possible to the enemy. Cau- 
tiously he crawled very close to the rebel skirmish- 
line. After lying on the ground and listening for 
some time with great attention, he withdrew, say- 
ing, "The heart is all out of them. Their fire is 
slack and scattered. It is time to end it." One 
history says of that end, — 

"On the 1st of April Sheridan attacked Lee's right at 
Five Forks, assaulted and carried the fortified position of the 
enemy, capturing all his artillery and between five thousand 
and six thousand prisoners. The defeat was decisive. The 
rebels fled in every direction ; and the bulk of the force that 
had been in front of Sheridan never was able again to rejoin 
Lee. 



THE VANQUISHED CHIEF. 67 

" News of the victory reached Grant at nine o'clock in 
the evening. He at once determined that the hour had come 
for the final assault. Without consulting any one, he wrote 
a despatch to Meade, ordering an attack at midnight all 
along the lines in front of Petersburg, which were at least 
ten miles long. . . . That night the enemy evacuated Peters- 
burg and Richmond, flying south-west towards Danville. 
So the goal that our armies had been four years seeking to 
attain was won. Grant did not wait a moment, but, without 
entering Richmond in person, pushed on in pursuit at day- 
light on the 3d, leaving to a subordinate the glory of seiz- 
ing the capital of Virginia. The energy with which he fol- 
followed the unhappy Lee was terrific. He disposed his 
columns on two roads, and marched with marvellous speed. 
Sheridan, Ord, Meade, vied with each other in their efforts 
to overtake and annihilate the last fighting force of the re- 
bellion ; and the men, inspired with their recent and magnifi- 
cent triumphs, murmured at no labors or dangers. Mean- 
while mindful, even at this intense crisis, of all other and 
co-operative emergencies, Grant, as he was pursuing Lee, 
sent orders to Sherman to push at once against Johnston, 
so that the war might be finished at once. ' Rebel armies,' 
he reminded him, 'are now the only strategic points to 
strike at.' " 

It may be doubted if the loyal American lives 
who does not appreciate the sterling moral quali- 
ties, the intellectual powers, and surprising mili- 
tary genius which elevated Lee above any other 
Southern officer ; but, in proportion as they ad- 
mire the military chief of the rebellion, they detest 
its civil head. The infamous charge of Jefferson 
Davis that the object of the loyal armies aimed 
" at nothing less than the extermination of your- 
selves, your wives, and your children," found its 



68 ABOUT GRANT. 

most fitting rebuke in the following account and 
terms of surrender : — 

" All arms, artillery, and public property were to be turned 
over to officers appointed by Grant. These were the stipu- 
lations as Lee consented to them ; but, after he had signified 
his acceptance, Grant inserted the clause that the side-arms 
and private horses and baggage of the officers might be re- 
tained. Lee seemed much gratified at this magnanimity, 
which saved him and his officers the peculiar humiliation of 
a formal surrender of their weapons. He asked, how about 
the horses of the cavalry-men, which, in the rebel army, 
were the property of the private soldier. Grant replied 
that these were included in the surrender. Lee looked at 
the paper again, and acquiesced in Grant's interpretation. 
The latter then said, ' I will not change the terms of the 
surrender, General Lee ; but I will instrtict my officers 
who receive the paroles to allow the men to retain their 
horses, and take them home to work their little farms.'' " — 
Richardson. 

Thus the manhood and generosity of Grant an- 
swered the lying imputations of Davis. 



THE VANISHED CAPITAL. 69 



CHAPTER XL 

THE VANISHED CAPITAL. 

Abraham Lincoln went, by invitation of Gen. 
Grant, to witness the " lost cause " in the throes 
of death. 

In contesting Illinois with Douglas in 1858, 
Lincoln had asserted as his belief that this gov- 
ernment could not " endure permanently half 
slave and half free. I do not expect," said he, 
"the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the 
house to fall ; but I do expect it will cease to be 
divided. It will be all the one thing or all the 
other." He was at the camp of Grant to behold, 
if not the complete fulfilment of this prophecy, 
at least a mighty stride towards this desirable, 
though yet unaccomplished, end. Almost four 
years previous Stephens of Georgia, in addressing 
the citizens of Richmond, who were about to range 
Virginia with the Southern Confederacy, said, 
" What had you, the friends of liberty, to hope for 
while under Lincoln ? Nothing. Beginning in 
usurpation, where will he end ? He will quit 
Washington as ignominiously as he entered it, 
and God's will will have been accomplished." 
This man, whose large, kind heart, perfect hon- 



70 ABOUT GRANT. 

esty, and tireless consecration of effort to his coun- 
try had won from his loyal compatriots a love and 
trust bestowed on but few men who have ever 
lived ; the man, whose legal choice as President 
had given umbrage to the conspirators of the 
South ; whose name had been held up in scorn as 
a brutal tyrant, and covered with derision as an 
ignorant despot ; whom children had been taught 
to hate and brand with the vilest epithets, and 
upon whose head the loudest curses and foulest 
abuse had been heaped by a misguided people, — 
this great, loving, simple-hearted man, because 
God's will had been accomplished, had "quit 
Washington " to soon visit the vanishing capital 
of a baseless confederacy. The event is so admi- 
rably described by Holland in his " Life of Lin- 
coln," that place here is given to it, to impress 
on a new generation a most pathetic and striking 
incident in history: — 

" He went up in a man-of-war on the afternoon of Mon- 
day, landed at Rochetts, below the city, and, with his boy 
* Tad,' rode up the remaining mile in a boat. He entered 
the city in no triumphal car. No brilliant cavalcade accom- 
panied him ; but on foot, with no guard except the sailors 
who had rowed him up the James, he entered, and passed 
through the streets of the fallen capital. But his presence 
soon became known to the grateful blacks, who pressed 
upon him with their thankful ejaculations and tearful bless- 
ings on every side. Better and more expressive were the 
hats and handkerchiefs tossed in the air by these happy 
and humble people, than flags and streamers floating from 
masts and housetops. ' Glory to God ! glory ! glory ! ' 



THE VANISHED CAPITAL. 71 

shouted the black multitude of liberated slaves. ' I thank 
you, dear Jesus, that I behold President Linkum ! ' exclaimed 
a woman standing in her humble doorway, weeping in the 
fulness of her joy. Another, wild with delight, could do 
nothing but jump, and strike her hands, and shout with 
wild reiteration, ' Bless de Lord ! bless de Lord ! bless 
de Lord ! ' At last the streets became choked with the 
multitude, and soldiers were called to clear the way. A 
writer in 'The Atlantic Monthly,' to whom the author is 
indebted for the most of these particulars, says that one old 
negro exclaimed, ' May de good Lord bless you, President 
Linkum ! ' while he removed his hat, and the tears of joy 
rolled down his cheeks. ' The President,' the account pro- 
ceeds, ' removed his own hat, and bowed in silence ; but it 
was a bow which upset the forms, laws, customs, and cere- 
monies of centuries. It was a death-shock to chivalry, and 
a mortal wound to caste.' " 



7 2 



ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER XII. 

BREAKING RANKS. 

Neither the suppression of a gigantic rebellion, 
nor the construction, during the term of civil war, 
of a gigantic continental railway, — stretching 
over a thousand miles of desert, and traversing 
the steeps of huge mountains, — did so much to 
astonish the civilized world, or silence the evil pre- 
dictions of foreigners sceptical and inimical to 
our form of government, as the disarmament of 
our soldiers. It was incomprehensible how a vast 
armed force, for years occupying hostile territory 
and exposed to all the reckless habits inseparable 
from war, could be suddenly discharged from mili- 
tary service, and return to peaceful life without 
causing confusion and collision to shock the social 
order and endanger civil relations. A million of 
soldiers were mustered out in a few months and 
went back to their homes, and took up again 
their avocations, without causing a ripple upon 
the surface of society, with no other sign of dis- 
order than the wild welcome that everywhere 
greeted the faded and tattered colors of the loyal 
regiments on their homeward march. 

A multitude of soldiers became lost in a larger 



BREAKING RANKS. 73 

multitude of citizens, — their bronzed faces soon 
bleaching under the rays of peace ; their scars 
and wounds alone remaining to tell of their share 
in the struggle for the nation's life. The stained 
and rent flags of the loyal army are preserved in 
the Capitols of every loyal State; and year by 
year the survivors of that great martial comrade- 
ship carry flowers to the graves of the lamented 
dead. Occasionally living members of the " Grand 
Army of the Republic " are seen in public proces- 
sion, adding by their presence dignity to public 
celebrations ; and that is all. No special power 
or influence inures to these saviors of the repub- 
lic, save the universal respect due their valor and 
sacrifice. 

No clamor for confiscation or reprisal was ever 
raised. No dollar of treasure was ever demanded 
by these victors as revenge or satisfaction for their 
losses and burdens here. Magnanimity, if ever 
shown by conquerors, has been shown by these 
men, who voluntarily retired from, as they volun- 
tarily entered into, the service of their imperilled 
country. It was a magnanimity so generous, that 
it included within the wide circle of equal citizen- 
ship the mass of our foes, and held forth the full- 
est amnesty to every principal offender that sought 
its boon. 

The spirit of conciliation and fraternity which 
incited the motive of the Union soldier when he 
broke ranks and returned to civil life was inspired 
by the action of Grant at Appomattox. In the 



74 ABOUT GRANT. 

farewell address of the great Union leader to the 
disbanding army, the victory of peace and order 
was foreshadowed. 

To that triumphant army at the moment of its 
dissolution, he said, — 

" In obedience to your country's call, you left your homes 
and firesides, and volunteered in its defence. Victory has 
crowned your valor, and secured the purpose of your patri- 
otic hearts ; and, with the gratitude of your countrymen and 
the highest honors a great and free nation can accord, you 
will soon be permitted to return to your homes and families, 
conscious of having discharged the highest duty of Ameri- 
can citizens. 

" To achieve the glorious triumph, and secure to your- 
selves, your fellow-countrymen, and posterity, the blessings 
of free institutions, tens of thousands of your gallant country- 
men have fallen, and sealed their priceless legacy with their 
lives. The graves of these a grateful nation bedews with 
tears, honors their memories, and will ever cherish and sup- 
port their stricken families." — U. S. Grant, Lieutenant- 
General. 



GRANT IN CIVIL EMERGENCY. 



" Thither let us tend 
From off the tossing of these fiery waves : 
There rest, if any rest can harbor there ; 
And, re-assembling our afflicted Powers, 
Consult how we may henceforth most offend 
Our Enemy ; our own loss how'repair ; 
How overcome this dire calamity ; 
What re-enforcement we may gain from hope ; 
If not, what resolution from despair." 

Paradise Lost. 



1 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FIRST ATTEMPT TO "CLASP." 

We have quoted what Milton makes the insti- 
gator of the first recorded rebellion utter, and we 
shall see how it applies to our own history. 

Grant, in 1865, after visiting the South, made 
a report to the authorities stating the pleasure it 
gave him to learn from the leading men whom he 
met, " that they not only accepted the decision 
arrived at as final, but now that the smoke of 
battle had cleared away, and time had been given 
for reflection, that this decision had been a fortu- 
nate one for the whole country ; they receiving 
like benefit from it with those who opposed them 
in field and council." 

The spirit of the South just after the surrender 
of Lee was sensible and submissive. When the 
problem of re -adjustment was under solution, the 
" original sin " of the section broke out again. 
The Democratic party took the ground that the 
Southern States were "in the Union, and entitled 
to every right and privilege belonging to every 
other State." Aside from the law of self-preser- 
vation, which in war is the sole controlling law 

77 



78 ABOUT GRANT. 

and overrides written compacts, the Democratic 
argument was unanswerable. But to accept the 
Democratic view would lead to the glaring incon- 
sistency, — that the South, after it had stripped 
Northern households of loved inmates, and had 
forced on the Northern people enormous burdens, 
would be more powerful -by increased numbers in 
the councils of the nation and in the electoral col- 
lege than it had been before the war. The end of 
slavery added two-fifths to the representative vol- 
ume of the South, and nothing to its vote. By 
Democratic manipulation the crime of treason 
would be rewarded rather than punished. Thirty 
new votes in Congress and College would be the 
bounty paid the rebels by the juggle of Democratic 
restoration. Heavy obligations of war were en- 
tailed upon the loyal North : the main benefits of 
peace were to revert to the disloyal South. This 
gross injustice would also transfer the national 
control to the Democratic party. To prevent such 
wrong and calamity, the loyal majority determined 
settlement by means of the Constitutional Amend- 
ments. At this juncture the adherents of loyalty 
for the first time divided. Seward, Chase, Dix, 
Raymond, with many other prominent Republi- 
cans, objected to some extreme features of Recon- 
struction. 

John A. Andrew, the war Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, made an eloquent plea for a policy of 
Southern re-organization that would invite the co- 
operation of the best men and natural leaders. 



FIRST ATTEMPT TO "CLASP." 79 

The amendments especially discriminated against 
that class. Many soldiers in the Republican par- 
ty regretted such discrimination. They felt, that 
had the North been beaten, and had terms been 
suggested demanding as a return to political fra- 
ternity that the voters of the Northern States 
should by their own act disqualify and dishonor 
their leaders, they would have died before receiv- 
ing rights or privileges that could not be shared by 
the. men they loved and honored. This element 
in the Reconstruction plan of disqualifying the 
influential classes of the South was the secret not 
only of Republican opposition before it became 
law, but explains the resistance of the property- 
owner and the educated classes when subsequent- 
ly-adopted. To limit Southern power by basing 
representation on voting races was the plan urged 
by conservative Republicans. 1 

1 " If we have the constitutional right to make all men, including 
negroes, voters in the State they inhabit, let us do it. For to withhold the 
franchise from any human being solely on account of his color, is unmanly, 
unchristian, and un-American. If by the nature of our institutions we are 
precluded from regulating suffrage in the States, let us honestly admit the 
fact, and cease the attempt ' to do evil that good may come.' It is hard- 
ly to be believed that this nation, which exerted its grand energies to sup- 
press a sinful rebellion which sought to subvert its authority and govern- 
ment, after succeeding, should itself violate and disregard its own laws. 
We are a law-honoring and law-abiding people. If our statutes are wrong, 
let us repeal them. If our legislation is incomplete, let us correct it ; not 
by forced construction, but by calm and prescribed rules. While we be- 
lieve that the negro, on the basis of intelligence and patriotism, should be 
permitted to vote ; while we will plead with all our ability for the extension 
of this privilege to him everywhere, and back up our entreaty by casting our- 
own vote in his favor when and where we have the right so to do, — we have 
yet to learn how, either as an inherent right of our nature or the civil right 



So ABOUT GRANT. 

The reduction of representation to voting races 
would make it impossible, even by a "solid South," 
to jeopardize loyal supremacy. The policy would, 
moreover, assign the question of suffrage for freed- 
men to the States where freedmen resided. The 
prospect of a great increase in its political impor- 
tance and influence, by extending suffrage to the 
blacks, would be likely to decide the South, and 
establish a progressive party naturally in the hands 
of the most enlightened citizens. All movements 
for conciliation on conservative Republican grounds 
were defeated through the ambition of the Demo- 
cratic party of the North, and the unmasking of 
the false character of Southern submission. The 
pretended renunciation of principles underlying 
secession, and devotion to the "flag" and the 
"nation" as loyally understood, were shown to be 
hypocritical on the part of the Southern masses. 
The disposition to go " half-way " was principally 
a Northern sentiment. 

The Philadelphia Convention of 1866 was the 
first appearance of the political leaders of the 
South in a national body since the opening of 
the Rebellion. A large portion of the Northern 
members of this convention were Republicans, and 

we receive from the laws, we can compel other men to accept our views, 
and foist our convictions upon communities of which we make no part, 
with any title of authority, or any sanction of conferred power. Wherever 
this nation has the power, it should protect the people. Wherever it can, 
it should equalize rights, regardless of color, race, or creed." 

This extract from a Republican paper shows the opinion and reasoning 
of the Republican conservatives of that date. 



FIRST ATTEMPT TO "CLASP." 81 

had been soldiers of the Union. They went there to 
fraternize. The "clasping" fever seized them early, 
and with the most it had but a short run. This 
first movement towards national union found that 
a national love-feast was looked upon suspiciously 
by the bulk of the Northern loyalists. There rose 
loud hooting and much jeering at Northern and 
Southern officers as they walked into the assembly 
"arm in arm." The heartiest scorn at this gush- 
ing tableaux came from those who a few years 
later went into the express business of "shaking 
hands over the bloody chasm." The resolutions 
of this convention were of the genuine pacifica- 
tory sort. "Gratitude for peace," a desire "to 
forget and forgive the past," a reverence for the 
Constitution "as it comes to us from our ances- 
tors," and a "regard for the Union in its restora- 
tion more sacred than ever," were some of the 
yearnings of "peacemakers" of that day. The 
soldiers who held these views of reunion then, 
though some were maimed and all were veterans, 
were dubbed the "Bread and Butter Brigade." 
Six years after, the man who invented this term of 
reproach broke from the Republican party to take 
the Democratic nomination on a platform which 
demanded "the immediate removal of all disa- 
bilities," "universal amnesty," "local self-govern- 
ment," " State self-government," and the "nation's 
return to methods of peace and the constitutional 
limitations of power." The wise constituency that 
joined with the editor of "The Tribune" in de- 



82 ABOUT GRANT. 

nouncing the premature peace-offering at Philadel- 
phia in 1866 did not follow him when, in 1872, he 
consented to become the figure-head of Dem- 
ocracy in leading the " Confederate brigadiers " 
back to national rule. The people were then wiser 
than the " Conservatives," as later they were wiser 
than the " Independents." They mistrusted 
Southern professions of loyalty to the Union, and 
acquiescence in the results of the war. They saw 
in this political combination at Philadelphia a far 
greater desire for political power than for real 
peace. When the hidden countenance of the 
Prophet of Khorassan was unveiled, -the devoted 
followers of the apostate were paralyzed with 
fright as they beheld the distorted features of a 
face they thought divine. So, when the disguise 
was torn away at Philadelphia, and the Republicans 
who made part of this first fraternal effort beheld 
revealed the naked deformity of the Democratic 
party, they fled from the scene as the youths of 
the Orient fled from the monster they had been 
taught to adore. 



AD INTERIM SECRETARY. 8$ 



CHAPTER XIV. 

AD INTERIM SECRETARY. 

"A man can't throw away his tobacco in this 
country without hitting a justice of the peace," 
was the way in which an irate son of Massachu- 
setts expressed his contempt for the multiplicity 
of officials in that State. Plentiful as were civil 
positions, Grant never held one until appointed 
secretary of war ad interim during Johnson's ad- 
ministration. The removal from the war-office of 
its energetic and patriotic incumbent, Stanton, was 
in opposition to the protests of the general of the 
army. The rejection by the South of the Four- 
teenth Amendment had darkened the prospect of 
unity and peace. Congress, for precaution, if not 
in retaliation for that act, had passed Reconstruc- 
tion measures, making five military districts of the 
area of rebellion. 

The connection of the war bureau with his own 
department, and the need of its management by 
a proper loyal officer, during the parturition of 
reconstruction, led Grant, as the " safest course," 
to assent to the wish of the President, and fill the 
vacancy pending the disagreement between the 
Executive and Senate with reference to the tenure 



84 ABOUT GRANT. 

of the suspended secretary of war. In accepting 
the place, Grant was misjudged. It was asserted 
that he had "gone over to the enemy," that his 
natural " Copperhead proclivities " had developed, 
and that he had "betrayed the Union." Had 
Grant been thin-skinned or over-sensitive, or had 
he held his personal vindication of more impor- 
tance than the well-being of the country, he would 
have declined his doubtful ad interim honors, and 
left public affairs to drift towards confusion. But 
he was a patriot, and forgot his private annoy- 
ance for the common good. He took the position, 
and held it for five months. He resisted with 
proper, yet very decided, efforts the Executive 
action, which day by day was widening the breach 
newly opened between the contesting sections of 
the country. Grant remonstrated against the dis- 
placement of Sheridan, and wrote to the Presi- 
dent, " Allow me to say, as a friend desiring peace 
and quiet, — the welfare of the whole country, 
North and South, — that it is in my opinion more 
than the loyal people (I mean those who supported 
the government during the great rebellion) will 
quietly submit to, to see the very man of all 
others whom they have expressed confidence in 
removed." But Sheridan "had to go." Still 
Grant held on ; for he saw that work was to be 
done. His industry while ad interim secretary 
was untiring. The department needed overhaul- 
ing sadly ; and retrenchment — the principal busi- 
ness of the nation for years following — was begun 



AD INTERIM SECRETARY. 85 

by Grant in a manner so judicious and thorough, 
that it served as a model for all subsequent econo- 
mists. " Retrenchment was the first subject to 
attract my attention," Grant says in his report. 
So vigorous was the reform broom plied among 
the sinecures, surplus incumbents, idle property, 
accumulated rubbish, and needless processes of 
"circumlocution," that in his five months of civil 
duty he caused a saving to the government of 
more than six millions before the year expired. 1 

The collision between the President and the 
Senate concerning the suspension of Stanton, and 
the validity of the " Tenure of Office Act," made 
no common crisis. A rupture of the most serious 
nature between co-ordinate branches of govern- 

1 By his direction, while secretary of war ad interim, the duties of 
the Bureaus of Rebel Archives and of Exchange of Prisoners were trans- 
ferred to the adjutant-general's office, thus dispensing with the services 
of a great number of officers and clerks. He reduced the number of 
agents and subordinates in the Freedmen's Bureau, and largely curtailed 
its expenses ; closed useless hospitals and dispensaries ; discontinued a 
long list of superfluous mustering and disbursing offices, discharging their 
numerous incumbents and attendants, and thus stopping the needless 
expenditure of considerable sums. He sold surplus animals, ambu- 
lances, wagons, &c, to the amount of 833,535 ; and superfluous and use- 
less stores and war material of various kinds, amounting to £268,000 ; and 
one thousand temporary buildings used by quartermasters throughout the 
country, to make every practicable reduction in the number of employes on 
duty under their direction. The result was, that in a short time the 
monthly expenses of that department, arising from the hire of civilians, 
had been reduced by 8407,065, making an annual saving in this item alone 
of nearly £5,000,000. Besides the class of employees just mentioned, the 
numbers of mechanics, laborers, and others, in various branches of the 
service, were so reduced that the monthly expenditures in this particular 
were curtailed full £100,000, making an annual saving of more than 
$1,200,000. 



86 ABOUT GRANT. 

ment was imminent. By the Constitution, the 
right of removal was secured as the plain preroga- 
tive of the President. The Tenure Act, made into 
law in the heat of the controversy, required con- 
current action on the part of the Senate for 
removing as well as appointing constitutional 
officers. The law was generally held to be illegal, 
but had not yet been so reported by the compe- 
tent tribunal. The President sought to force an 
opinion from the Supreme Court by having the 
secretary adinterim refuse to obey the operation 
of the Tenure Act, which, according to the senato- 
rial view, restored Stanton, as his removal had not 
been approved by the conferring body. To regard 
the law as void, and have the position ratified by 
the court, was the policy of the Executive. Grant 
determined to yield the place on the theory that 
all laws legally enacted were binding, until overset 
by judicial process. The plan of the President 
was revolutionary ; that of Grant in conformity to 
the soundest precepts of law and order. It was 
an emergency fraught with the most alarming 
symptoms. The body politic was in an excited 
and inflammable state. The least mistake would 
lead to deplorable results. To yield to the Presi- 
dent would have been a dangerous precedent in 
the direction of Executive innovation. The hatred 
of the contending powers was as relentless as the 
hostility that Rome held for Carthage, It was 
fortunate for both the liberties and the integrity 
of the republic that the secretary ad interim was 



AD INTERIM SECRETARY. 87 

the real power in the land. Holding with firm 
hand the army ; having the profoundest respect 
for the law ; keeping step to the loyal needs of the 
hour, — he declined to second the President in his 
open disregard of statutes rightfully passed ; and 
thus by his patriotic conduct he held the nation 
to its constitutional restraints. 

Grant wrote to the President a letter, of which 
the following is the conclusion : — 

" The course you would have it understood I agreed to 
pursue was in violation of law, and without orders from 
you; while the course I did pursue, and which I never 
doubted you fully understood, was in accordance with law, 
and not in disobedience of any orders of my superior. 

" And now, Mr. President, when my honor as a soldier 
and integrity as a man have been so violently assailed, 
pardon me for saying that I can but regard this whole 
matter from the beginning to the end as an attempt to 
involve me in the resistance of law, for which you hesitated 
to assume the responsibility in orders, and thus to destroy 
my character before the country. I am in a measure con- 
firmed in this conclusion by your recent orders directing me 
to disobey orders from the secretary of war — my superior 
and your subordinate — without having countermanded his 
authority to issue the orders I am to disobey. With the 
assurance, Mr. President, that nothing less than a vindica- 
tion of my personal honor and character could have induced 
this correspondence on my part, 

" I have the honor to be very respectfully your obedient 

servant, 

" U. S. Grant, General" 



88 ABOUT GRANT, 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE CHANGED CONSTITUTION. 

The North was forced by events to take ultra 
ground on Reconstruction. Many who hesitated 
at first were compelled to yield their objections. 
The attitude of the late rebels had become so 
offensive and unbearable, that popular indignation 
was at white heat. Northern justice recoiled with 
horror at the saturnalia of blood in New Orleans, 
where Republicans, white and black, were shot 
down like cattle. "Conciliation" sounded farcical, 
and " hand-shaking " seemed a mockery when one 
political opinion was reason for murder, and a 
meeting of freemen the occasion of massacre. 
The press of the South was saturated with venom, 
and full of loathsome abuse of " the institutions 
and people " of the loyal States. Persecution, 
terrible and relentless, was dealt out to the loyal- 
ists of the South. Sworn testimony gave it that 
"the national banner is openly insulted, and the 
national airs scoffed at, not only by an igno- 
rant populace, but at public meetings." It was 
an open revolt on the part of the South against 
the proposed methods of settlement, only sup- 
pressed by the superior military status of the 



THE CHANGED CONSTITUTION. 89 

central government The blacks were the sub- 
ject of "malicious hatred" by the whites. The 
predjudice against color, being deep-seated, mani- 
fested itself in a "denial of civil equality" to the 
freedmen, and "an aversion shown towards them 
in an insulting and cruel manner." 

The attempt was made to substitute through 
legislation the serfdom once regulated by the lash. 
Hostility to the Federal Union as it was compre- 
hended by the North; detestation of Federal 
officers, military and civil ; social ostracism for 
Northern settlers in the South, displayed in an 
open contempt for " Yankees " by women and 
children, whose sullenness and scorn were inborn 
and incurable, — were among the provocations 
which instigated a committee of Congress to re- 
port on the affairs of the nation : " In return for 
our kind desire for a resumption of fraternal rela- 
tions, we receive only an insolent assumption of 
rights and privileges long since forfeited. The 
crime we have punished is paraded as a virtue ; and 
the principles of republican government, we have 
vindicated at so terrible cost, are denounced as un- 
just and oppressive." This condition of the South 
so influenced the North in the year 1866, that the 
people, with the force of great numbers, determined 
on the most radical method of Reconstruction. 
The adoption of the Amendments was secured 
by the election of that year. The nature of the 
Constitution, when amended, was totally changed. 
The change was fundamental : it struck deep, 



9° 



ABOUT GRANT. 



and lifted citizenship out of the limitations of the 
State, and placed the life, liberty, protection, and 
privileges of the citizen under the jurisdiction of 
the nation. The changed Constitution made dec- 
laration to the effect, that the flag covered every 
American, whether found on his native or on 
foreign soil. It guaranteed to every qualified 
American a free vote, to be counted once, and 
but once in each instance, when thrown ; the 
unintimidated vote and the impartial count to be 
assured with the whole strength of the people. 
So citizenship, like territorial unity and the pub- 
lic honor, was to be the task of the sovereign 
nation, and not the affair of the separate State. 

The American people, with great deliberation 
and full realization of the bearing and consequence 
of their action, changed their Constitution to 
endow with equal citizenship the black race whom 
their victorious arms had liberated. Remember- 
ing the fidelity of that race to the cause of the 
Union, its readiness to share all it possessed for 
the comfort and safety of the loyal soldier; re- 
calling: its welcome to our banners in a hostile 
land, its service as guides to our armies, and 
its contribution to our exhausted ranks ; knowing 
that no sacrifice was too great for it to make, 
no task too hard to perform, no watchfulness or 
labor too exacting to render for loyalty, — the peo- 
ple put it into their changed Constitution, with all 
the solemnity of the amending power, that, by the 
organic law, no rebel should come back into the 



THE CHANGED CONSTITUTION. . 91 

Union on better terms than the black man, who 
had never been our foe. " Stalwartism " was 
born in this crisis. There is no better definition 
of this significant term than the following extract 
from Grant's speech at Des Moines : — 

" Let us labor for security of free thought, free speech, 
free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and 
equal rights and privileges for all men, irrespective of na- 
tionality, color, or religion ; encourage free schools ; resolve 
that not one dollar appropriated to them shall go to the sup- 
port of any sectarian school ; resolve that neither State nor 
nation shall support any institution, save those where every 
child may get common-school education unmixed with any 
atheistic, pagan, or sectarian teaching ; leave the matter of 
religious teaching to the family altar, and keep Church and 
State forever separate." 

The " Stalwart" believes in the civilization of 
the free States, which dignifies labor, and main- 
tains exact civil equality of all its units. At the 
opening of the Centennial Exhibition, a few years 
a^o, the N. Y. " Nation " said, " Government is not 
an emblem, a name, or an army with banners. It 
is a bundle of mutual services ; and its goodness or 
badness, and the value of its Contributions to the 
moral growth of the world, depend on the effi- 
ciency with which they are rendered. Unless we 
are supplying the poor and the rich with better 
justice; unless we are striving to make taxation 
lighter, and its collection simpler and easier; un- 
less we are discovering modes of making the exe- 
cution of all the laws more efficient and more 



92 ABOUT GRANT. 

certain ; of taking better care of the poor- and 
insane ; of giving the young a better education ; 
of bringing the highest intelligence of the com- 
munity to bear on legislation and administration ; 
of enabling: the weak and unlearned to feel secure 
about the future ; of making firmer the hold of the 
frugal on their savings ; of making marriage a 
more honorable and sacred relation, and children a 
more solemn responsibility, — all that we heard on 
Tuesday of the novelty and success of our politi- . 
cal system was a reproach, and not a glory." To 
this the " Stalwart " says, "Amen ! " He accepts 
this test of political goodness and badness. Be- 
cause Southern civilization tends to reproach such 
sentiments, he pronounces it vicious, and hence 
unsafe. It is because free institutions under loyal 
control tend towards good government that the 
men who, in 1865, laid down the duties of war to 
take up the duties of peace, declare for the loyal 
and progressive administration of affairs as under- 
stood by a majority of the North. 

Grant struck the key-note of that political faith 
which is loyal to the core and to the end, when he 
gave expression to the desire to see the time 
" when the title of citizen carries with it all the 
protection and privileges to the humblest that it 
does to the most exalted." 

While Grant is spared to America he will be 
regarded as the grandest living defender and 
exponent of that civilization founded upon the 



THE CHANGED CONSTITUTION. 



93 



dignity, equality, and liberty of man as man, and 
which finds its fundamental guaranty in the Con- 
stitution of the United- States as perfected by its 
late Amendments. 



GRANT, EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENT. 



" If I were a sovereign, I would never call any statesman to my councils 
who had not shown for one session he could be totally silent." — Sir 
Arthur Helps. 






CHAPTER XVI. 

grant's hardest battle. 

The sovereign people called Grant to become 
their chief magistrate, — a man silent in public, 
except so far as deeds speak, and if capable of, 
much averse to, making addresses of a popular 
character. At the Soldiers' and Sailors' and Re- 
publican Conventions which met in 1868, he was 
nominated by acclamation as the loyal candidate 
for the presidential office "amid thunders of ap- 
plause." Some of his most intimate friends im- 
plored him not to accept the nomination for the 
presidency. They urged as reasons against it his 
inexperience in civil affairs, and the probability of 
embroilments that would be likely to tarnish his 
unsullied military fame, and permanently affect 
his historical reputation. To all these counsellors 
he replied in effect : " All you say is plain to me. 
I am aware of the difficulties awaiting any man 
who takes that position with its present complica- 
tions. I have no ambition for the place. My 
profession is suited to my tastes and habits. I 
have arrived at its height, and been honored with 
a position to continue for life, with a generous 

97 



98 ABOUT GRANT. 

compensation, and satisfactory to the highest aspi- 
rations of a soldier. It will be the greatest sacri- 
fice I ever made to give this up for the turmoil of 
the presidential office. But, if the people ask it, 
I must yield. For some years the people of 
America have trusted their sons and brothers and 
fathers to me ; and every step taken with them, in 
the period from Belmont to Appomattox, has been 
tracked in the best blood of this country. If now 
they need me to finish the work, I must accept the 
duty, if in doing so I lay down the realization of 
my most ambitious hopes." 

He was triumphantly elected, and took the oath 
of office, March 4, 1869. His messages, public 
acts, and political course, since then, reflect the 
best opinion of the country on all matters con- 
nected with the yet unsettled affairs growing out 
of rebellion. 

GRANT ON PUBLIC POLICY. 

If elected, " it will be my endeavor to administer all the 
laws in good faith, with economy, and with the view of giv- 
ing peace, quiet, and protection everywhere." 

His principle of action is embodied in the state- 
ment : — 

"A purely administrative officer should always be left 
free to execute the will of the people. I always have 
respected that will, and always shall." — Letter accepting 
Nomination. 

GRANT ON EXECUTIVE DUTY. 

" On leading questions agitating the public mind, I will 
always express my views to Congress, and urge them 



GRANT'S HARDEST BATTLE. 



99 



according to my judgment ; and, when I think it advisable, 
will exercise the constitutional privilege of interposing a 
veto to defeat measures which I oppose. But all laws will 
be faithfully executed, whether they meet my approval or 
not. 

" I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but 
none to enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to 
govern all alike, — those opposed as well as those who favor 
them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or 
obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution." 



j g v 



GRANT ON PUBLIC CONTROVERSIES. 

" In meeting these, it is desirable they should be ap- 
proached calmly, without prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, 
remembering that the greatest good to the greatest number 
is the object to be obtained. 

"This requires security of person, property, and free 
religious and political opinion in every part of our common 
country, without regard to local prejudice. All laws to 
secure these ends will receive my best efforts for their 
enforcement." 

GRANT ON FOREIGN POLICY. 

" I would deal with nations as equitable law requires 
individuals to deal with each other." 

GRANT ON CITIZENSHIP. 

" I would protect the law-abiding citizen, whether of 
native or foreign birth, wherever his rights are jeopar- 
dized, or the flag of our country floats." 

GRANT ON THE INDIAN. 

" I will favor any course towards them which tends to 
their civilization and ultimate citizenship." 

GRANT ON INDIVIDUAL DUTY. 

" I ask patient forbearance, one toward another, through- 
out the land, and a determined effort on the part of every 



IOO ABOUT GRANT. 

citizen to do his share toward cementing a happy union ; and 
J ask the prayers of the nation to Almighty God in behalf 
of this consummation." 

GRANT ON PUBLIC EDUCATION. 

" The ' Father of his Country,' in his farewell address, uses 
the language, 'Promote, then, as a matter of primary impor- 
tance institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge.' 
The adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitu- 
tion completes the greatest civil change, and constitutes the 
most important event that has ever occurred since the 
nation came into life. The change will be beneficial in 
proportion to the heed that is given to the urgent recom- 
mendation of Washington. If these recommendations were 
important then, with a population of but a few millions, how 
much more important now ! 

" I therefore call upon Congress to take all the means 
within their constitutional powers to promote and encourage 
popular education throughout the country ; and upon the 
people everywhere to see to it that all who possess and ex- 
ercise political rights shall have the opportunity to acquire 
the knowledge which will make their share in government 
a blessing, and not a danger. By such means only can the 
benefits contemplated by this amendment to the Constitution 
be secured." 

GRANT ON THE TEST OATH. 

" I believe that it is not wise policy to keep from office 
by an oath those who are not disqualified by the Constitu- 
tion, and who are the choice of the legal voters ; but, while 
relieving them from an oath which they cannot take, I 
recommend the release also of those to whom the oath has 
no application." 

GRANT ON ASSESSMENTS. 

"The utmost fidelity and diligence will be expected of 
all officers in every branch of the public service. Political 
assessments, as they are called, have been forbidden within 



GRANT'S HARDEST BATTLE. 101 

the various departments ; and, while the right of all persons 
in official positions to take part in politics is acknowledged, 
and the elective franchise is recognized as a high trust to 
be discharged by all entitled to its exercise, whether in the 
employment of the government or in private life, honesty 
and efficiency, not political activity, will determine the 
tenure of office." 

GRANT ON CIVIL RIGHTS. 

" I sympathize most cordially in any effort to secure for 
all our people, of whatever race, nativity, or color, the exer- 
cise of those rights to which every citizen should be en- 
titled." 

GRANT ON THE SUCCESSION. 

" Past experience may guide me in avoiding mistakes, 
inevitable with novices in all professions and in all occupa- 
tions. When relieved from the responsibilities of my pres- 
ent trust by the election of a successor, whether it be at the 
end of this term or the next, I hope to leave to him as Ex- 
ecutive a country at peace within its own borders, at peace 
with outside nations, with a credit at home and abroad, and 
without embarrassing questions to threaten its future pros- 
perity." 

GRANT ON HIMSELF. 

" I never sought the office for a second, nor even for a 
first, nomination. To the first I was called from a life posi- 
tion, — one created by Congress expressly for me for sup- 
posed services rendered to the republic. The position va- 
cated I liked. It would have been most agreeable to me to 
have retained it until such time as Congress might have con- 
sented to my retirement, with the rank and a portion of the 
emoluments which I so much needed, to a home where the 
balance of my days might be spent in peace and in the en- 
joyment of domestic quiet, relieved from the cares which 
have oppressed me so constantly now for fourteen years. 
But I was made to believe that the public good called me 
to make the sacrifice. 



102 ABOUT GRANT. 

" Without seeking the office for the second term, the 
nomination was tendered to me by a unanimous vote of 
the delegates of all the States and Territories, selected by 
the Republicans of each to represent their whole number for 
the purpose of making their nomination. I cannot say that 
I was not pleased at this, and at the overwhelming indorse- 
ment which their action received at the election following. 
But it must be remembered that all the sacrifices, except 
that of comfort, had been made in accepting the first term. 
Then, too, such a fire of personal abuse and slander had 
been kept up for four years, — notwithstanding the conscien- 
tious performance of my duties to the best of my under- 
standing, though I admit, in the light of subsequent events, 
many times subject to fair criticism, — that an indorsement 
from the people, who alone govern republics, was a gratifi- 
cation that it is only human to have appreciated and en- 
joyed." 

Grant made mistakes in war : his virtue con- 
sisted in never defending or repeating them. He 
erred in civil administration : it is but to acknowl- 
edge his humanity to admit his liability to stumble. 
He had the military contempt, not always sound, 
for doctrinaires and politicians. He did not, as 
it would have been better for him to have done, 
consult familiarly public men who had done much 
to make true public sentiment. His method of 
selecting his cabinet and of making appointments 
will not stand the test of rigid criticism. There is 
a better way to choose ministers and high officials 
than because of their genial qualities or good fel- 
lowship. As ninety per cent of the civil list to- 
day were officers under Grant, and as no complaint 
is made now in this direction, it is apparent in the 



GRANT'S HARDEST BATTLE. 103 

main that his appointments were judicious. His 
mistakes came from his generous impulses towards 
his personal friends, and his determination to stand 
by them against odds. His reliance upon those 
who had served with him, and others whom he had 
intimately known, was over-confident : he could not 
discredit them. When, early in the war, his old 
instructor at West Point, who was in his command, 
had been reported disloyal, he said, " Keep out of 
the papers every thing against Smith. Any thing 
against him must be a lie." This was the key of 
his adhesion to his friends through good and ill 
report. 

He sometimes trusted not wisely, but too well. 
The motive was always good and true, whatever 
may have been the mistake. Coming into civil life 
unprepared, save by natural excellence of judg- 
ment, purity of intention, and firmness of resolve, 
his administration brought the country each year 
nearer to that consummation of reduced expenses, 
lessened public debt, unquestioned public credit, 
and peace at home and abroad, to which he stood 
pledged in assuming his responsibilities. If those 
in whom he placed confidence were unfaithful, no 
one of his bitterest maligners has ever yet dared 
to impugn his individual integrity, or refuse to him 
the qualification Aristides said " became a gene- 
ral ; " and that is, " to have clean hands." 



104 



ABOUT GRANT, 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE BESOTTED NATION. 

Ask any one of the professional denunciators of 
Grant the cause of his opposition, it will be re- 
replied, that corruption flourished, and the civil 
service was debauched during his administration. 

This statement cannot be disputed. War had 
unloaded upon the community a currency that in 
volume was far beyond honest business-needs, and 
was worth much less than its face value. It was 
the era of latitude in morals as well as looseness 
in political and commercial dealings. Occupants 
of congressional and senatorial seats had continued 
the system, which, from the days of Andrew Jack- 
son, had been growing into general practice, — of 
farming out the federal patronage. This perni- 
cious system had the effect to increase the force, 
while it weakened the standard for the individual 
office-holder. 

The temptation to defraud the revenues, to- 
gether with the inefficiency or infidelity of the offi- 
cial, led to an organized swindling. To protect 
the treasury there were made many additions to the 
civil list. 

There is a legend that the lambs once got to- 



THE BESOTTED NATION. 105 

gether, and voted to increase the number of dogs 
to protect themselves from the ravenous beasts. 
The affair went on well until the beasts were 
disposed of ; when, being hungry, the dogs turned 
their attention to mutton. So the flock suffered 
more from the dogs at last than from the beasts at 
first. So with our government. 

" One bottle of water will not be noticed if I 
pour it into the rabbi's yearly store," said a close- 
dealing Hebrew. As every one else had the same 
thought, and carried it out, it was fatal to the 
rabbi's store of wine. 

The same inclination to be sharp and to take 
advantage, if not universal, was very general ; 
while inflation careered among us with the' mad 
recklessness of a carnival. So lost to a fine sense 
of honor had the greater number of property-hold- 
ers become, that the returns of income, though 
verified by oath, were deemed incorrect as a rule. 
The grossness and openness of this way of wrong- 
ing the treasury was so proverbial and irremedi- 
able, that the repeal of the tax was demanded on 
the score of impossibility in procuring just ac- 
counts. If those who had wealth, and could best 
afford to bear the heavy burdens of the nation, 
were so unscrupulous as to rob the nation, what 
could be expected of those less fortunate in pos- 
sessions, and from other circumstances less likely 
to be accurate in keeping books ? Grant came 
to the presidency when the spirit of speculation 
was most rife. He did nothing to create this 



106 ABOUT GRANT. 

unhealthy state of excess ; and yet he was held 
responsible for its continued sway. He found it 
in existence, and recognized its danger and its de- 
moralizing influence. By all legitimate means he 
sought to avert the calamity which confronted the 
country. His State papers are full of caution. 

GRANT ON MOIETIES AND FLUCTUATION. 

" The present laws for collecting revenue pay collectors 
of customs small salaries, but provide for moieties (shares 
in all seizures), which, at principal ports of entry particu- 
larly, raise the compensation of those officials to a large 
sum. It has always seemed to me as if this system must, 
at times, work perniciously. It holds out an inducement to 
dishonest men, should such get possession of those offices, 
to be lax in their scrutiny of goods entered to enable them 
finally to make large seizures. Your attention is respect- 
fully invited to this subject. Continued fluctuations in the 
value of gold, as compared with the national currency, has 
a most damaging effect upon the increase and development 
of the country in keeping up prices of all articles necessary 
in every-day life. It fosters a spirit of gambling, prejudicial 
alike to national morals and the national finances." 

GRANT ON OFFICIAL HONESTY. 

" It has been the aim of the administration to enforce 
honesty and efficiency in all public offices. Every public 
servant who has violated the trust placed in him has been 
proceeded against with all the rigor of the law. If bad men 
have secured places, it has been the fault of the system 
established by law and custom for making appointments, or 
the fault of those who recommend for government positions 
persons not sufficiently well known to them personally, or 
who give letters indorsing the characters of office-seekers 
without a proper sense of the grave responsibility which 
such a course devolves upon them. A civil-service reform 



THE BESOTTED NATION. 107 

which can correct this abuse is much desired. In mercan- 
tile pursuits, the business-man who gives a letter of recom- 
mendation to a friend, to enable him to obtain credit from a 
stranger, is regarded as morally responsible for the integrity 
of his friend and his ability to meet his obligations. A 
reformatory law which would enforce this principle against 
all indorsers of persons for public peace, would insure great 
caution in making recommendations. A salutary lesson has 
been taught the careless and the dishonest public servant in 
the great number of prosecutions and convictions of the last 
two years." 

GRANT ON THE TENURE OF OFFICE. 

" An earnest desire has been felt to correct abuses which 
have grown up in the civil service of the country through 
the defective method of making appointments to office. 
Heretofore federal offices have been regarded too much as 
the reward of political services. Under authority of Con- 
gress, rules have been established to regulate the tenure of 
office and the mode of appointments. It cannot be ex- 
pected that any system of rules can be entirely effective, 
and prove a perfect remedy for the existing evils, until they 
have been thoroughly tested by actual practice, and amended 
according to the requirements of the service. During my 
term of office it shall be my earnest endeavor to so apply 
the rules as to secure the greatest possible reform." 

GRANT ON REFORM. 

" In three successive messages to Congress I have called 
attention to the subject of " civil-service reform." Action 
has been taken so far as to authorize the appointment of a 
board to devise rules governing methods of making appoint- 
ments and promotions ; but there never has been any action 
making these rules binding, or even entitled to observance 
where persons desire the appointment of a friend, or the 
removal of an official who may be disagreeable to them. 
To have any rules effective, they must have the acquiescence 
of Congress as well as of the Executive. I commend, 



108 ABOUT GRANT. 

therefore, the subject to your attention, and suggest that a 
special committee of Congress might confer with the civil- 
service board during the present session for the purpose of 
devising such rules as can be maintained, and which will 
secure the services of honest and capable officials, and 
which will also protect them in a degree of independence 
while in office. Proper rules will protect Congress, as well 
as the Executive, from much needless persecution, and will 
prove of great value to the public at large in the civil ser- 
vice of the government ; but it will require the direct action 
of Congress to render the enforcement of the system bind- 
ing upon my successors, and I hope that the experience of 
the past year, together with appropriate legislation by Con- 
gress, may reach a satisfactory solution of this question, 
and secure to the public service, for all time, a practical 
method of obtaining faithful and efficient officers and 
employes." 

Macaulay says the ministers of England during 
the reigns of George the First and George the 
Second "were compelled to reduce corruption to 
a system, and to practise it on a gigantic scale." 
With us the unholy greed for wealth, however got- 
ten, like a virus, had run through the veins of the 
body politic. There were officials, even secreta- 
ries, false to their duty. It must be acknowl- 
edged, however, that corruption came from the 
community, and seduced the officer, instead of 
being, as in England, a constituent part of the 
political machinery. The public was the first 
tempter. In the city of New York, where the 
importations were of such magnitude that proper 
superintendence was difficult, the most intricate 
schemes of deceit were devised. In hosiery, 



THE BESOTTED NATION. 109 

gloves, and silks, false invoices and false exami- 
nations were arranged by collusion ; the merchant 
generally being the originator of the trickery. 
Cargoes of merchandise were underweighted, and 
the margin divided between importer and official. 
Frauds in sugar, wool, metals, by under-valuation, 
by obtaining appraisements on low grades when 
high ones should have been rendered, and many 
processes combining ingenuity with dishonesty, 
were in daily practice at the great ports. A firm 
in the East, of the highest reputation, was glad to 
compromise with government by payment of thou- 
sands of dollars. 

In the season when hair, other than natural, 
was the rage, one dealer controlled the market. 
He dodged impost by importing thoroughly 
cleaned hair rolled up in sawdust, which then 
passed as raw hair, and escaped taxation. Taking 
the material to his warehouse, he merely shook the 
hair free ; and, putting upon it the foreign labels 
which had reached him by mail, he was enabled to 
drive the honest merchant out of the field. This 
offender settled with government by handing over 
thousands of dollars purloined in this manner. 

A distinguished public man came to the Bos- 
ton Custom House with a certified invoice of a 
watch. The document had upon it the required 
consular seal. The gentleman said the bill did 
not represent the true price, and he wished to pay 
what was just. The Swiss vender had written 
him a letter, saying he had made out the account 



HO ABOUT GRANT. 

for half the sum paid, " as he usually did with 
American purchases," to lessen the duty. An idea 
of the mercantile morals of the foreign tourist is 
disclosed when it is custom to dock American 
bills to assist in cheating the revenue. It was 
affirmed by one of the highest federal officials in 
New York, that, from his experience, there did not 
at one time seem to be a dozen merchants in that 
city who were honest with the government. The 
mania for wealth, and passion for gain, stimulated 
by the redundant currency, were demonstrated 
among all classes. "Corners," "jobs," "brilliant 
operations in the street," " land schemes," " colo- 
nizations," "railroad enterprises," engrossed the 
attention of men to such a degree, that they had 
little time to look into the safety or honesty of 
many investments. 

The Pathans of the frontier of India "neither 
lend money at usury, nor keep shop," because the 
former is forbidden by the Koran, and the latter 
they think demeaning as an occupation. It will 
be well for our republic when conscience will put 
limitations upon profit, because the law of God 
requires justice in all things. 

To resist the degrading tendencies of the times 
was the common resolution of thoughtful men. 
Reform became the demand of the hour. But, in 
working the reform batteries, some zealous but in- 
discreet reformers, instead of bearing on the cen- 
tral motive of avarice which had taken possession 
of the besotted nation, turned upon the President, 



\ \ 



THE BESOTTED NATION. in 

and charged him with the guilt of the public rot- 
tenness. Every thing abominable was laid to 
"Grantism." Did a combination of speculators 
contract to lay wooden pavements in Washington 
at ruinous cost, it was all "Grantism." Did West- 
ern underlings connive at "whiskey frauds," again 
it was " Grantism." Did cold-blooded directors 
for undue gain invest the scanty earnings of the 
freedmen in a scandalous manner, most unjustly 
the cry went up, " Grantism ! " 

Hugo revives the story that King James caused 
suspected witches to be boiled in caldrons, and, 
tasting the broth, from its flavor would pronounce 
upon the character of the victim. Self-appointed 
moral censors hurled into the seething caldron 
of public calumny the reputation of Grant, and, 
tasting the unhallowed brewage, brazenly gave 
out that all the iniquities of the period had the 
unmistakable flavor of " Grantism." Grant chal- 
lenged investigation, but no one dared to impugn 
his personal purity. Corruption was traced to 
many places and departments : none ever touched 
his garments. When the startling revelations 
broke upon him that those near to him, whom he 
had chosen to uphold his honor with that of the 
country, were smirched, though his heart felt the 
blow of the betrayal, with the sternness of Roman 
justice he gave the order, " Let no guilty man 
escape." The storm of personal abuse and the 
consolidation of attack culminated in the political 
campaign of 1872. The people read the arraign- 



112 ABOUT GRANT. 

ment of his accusers, they heard the bitter words 
uttered against his fame, and with that majestic 
emphasis which four millions of intelligent voting 
citizens only could pronounce, they vindicated the 
hero of their wars, and bade him once more serve 
in the place once honored by Washington and Lin- 
coln. 

Of his re-election Grant says, — 

" I acknowledge before this assembly, representing as it 
does every section of our country, the obligation I am under 
to my countrymen for the great honor they have conferred 
on me by returning me to the highest office within their gift, 
and the further obligation resting on me to render them the 
best services within my power. 

"This I promise, looking forward with the greatest 
anxiety to the day when I shall be released from responsi- 
bilities that at times are almost overwhelming, and from 
which I have scarcely had a respite since the eventful firing 
upon Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, to the present day. My 
services were then tendered, and accepted under the first call 
for troops growing out of that event. I did not ask for place 
or position, and was entirely without influence or the ac- 
quaintance of persons of influence, but was resolved to per- 
form my part in a struggle threatening the very existence of 
the nation — a conscientious duty — without asking promotion 
or command, and without a revengeful feeling towards any 
section or individual. 

" Notwithstanding this, throughout the war, and from my 
candidacy for my present office in 1868, to the close of the 
last presidential campaign, I have been the subject of abuse 
and slander scarcely ever equalled in political history, which 
to-day I feel that I can afford to disregard in view of your 
verdict, which I gratefully accept as my vindication." — Sec- 
ond Inaugural Address. 



THE BESOTTED NATION. 113 

Benton once said, " Every form of government 
has something in it to excite the pride and to 
rouse the devotion of its citizens. In monarchy 
it is the authority of the king ; in a republic it is 
the sanctity of the laws." 

One of the certain tests of fealty to law is to 
honorably adhere to public fiduciary obligations. 
That test had its full trial under Grant's presi- 
dency; and the uncertainty attending Republican 
integrity was settled, it is to be hoped, finally. The 
inviolability of public faith, giving as it does the 
highest evidence of national character, was the 
crowning feature of his administration. The dan- 
ger that threatened the public faith prior to 1868 
led the loyal people to select Grant as the candidate 
most sure to receive popular support. 

During his eight years of service, so steadily 
had the public debt been reduced, so rigidly had 
our engagements with the public creditor been 
kept, so judiciously had the public burdens been 
lessened by funding at low rates of interest and 
decreased expenditure, that the public credit never 
stood, up to that time, so high in the estimation of 
the world as when Grant turned over to his suc- 
cessor the presidential office. 



li 4 ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE OLD FIGHT IN A NEW FORM. 

Natural leaders of the South, unable to pre- 
vent the adoption of the constitutional amend- 
ments, combined to render them inoperative. To 
neutralize in that locality the special features of 
war legislation relative to the constitutional stand- 
ins: of the freed race — to restore the Democratic 
party to national control — became the effort and 
ambition of Southern politics. The political 
vacuum caused by absence of influential white 
Southerners from States where the emancipated 
class were an equal number or a majority, was 
filled by a class of men termed in derision " carpet- 
baggers." There were whites — some natives, but 
more "new-comers " — who defied the old Southern 
rule and sentiment, and cast their lot politically 
with the blacks.- To overthrow power thus ob- 
tained, the standard of "home rule" was raised, 
and was made the shibboleth of the "lost cause" 
in its revived condition. 

The old war-yell of independence was exchanged 
for the new peace-yell of "local government." 

It is still an " irrepressible conflict ; " and God 
means that it shall be so until free institutions, 



THE OLD FIGHT IN A NEW FORM. 115 

and justice to the negro, shall exist throughout the 
land. To say that such justice now exists, is to lie 
before men and before Heaven. 

A political confederacy of repudiating States; 
the disappearance in a few years of Republican 
majorities by the "shot-gun policy;" and the 
banks of the Mississippi lined with fleeing blacks, 
upheld by thoughts as grand as those which nerved 
the Hebrew exodus, make false all assertions of 
Southern freedom or its justice. "Better die in 
Kansas free than live in the South slaves," said 
a black refugee ; and the sentiment gives promise 
that the race which holds to such ideas will yet 
have its risrhts. 

May God help it to that end, and may he help 
us to help it! "The New-Orleans Times" has 
this incident : — 

; ' There was an episode in the convention a day or two ago 
which ought to be preserved in history. It will be remem- 
bered that Mr. T. T. Allain, a colored delegate from West 
Baton Rouge or Iberville, made a remarkably able and 
sensible speech in opposition to the abolition of the office 
of superintendent of public education. As soon as he con- 
cluded, Mr. McGloin, of one of the up-town wards of New 
Orleans, arose, and offered a resolution that his speech be 
translated into all the known languages and dialects for the 
information and guidance of humanity. We did not notice 
whether any one laughed. Mr. Allain at once took the floor, 
and said, — 

"'Mr. Chairman, I was formerly a slave. The results 
of the war emancipated me, and simultaneously placed me 
under the obligation of fitting myself to discharge the duties 
of citizenship. While the gentleman from Orleans was per- 



Ii6 ABOUT GRANT. 

fecting himself in all those languages to which he refers, I 
was picking cotton. The years that I spent in picking 
cotton he devoted to his moral and intellectual improve- 
ment; yet I think I may be pardoned for saying that he 
might have put his varied accomplishments to a more 
creditable »se than in thus striving to ridicule and deride 
me in my effort to promote an end I consider right and 
proper.' " 

Just men believe in the Allains more than the 
McGloins. 

From various public documents written by- 
Grant, we take the following extracts : 

" Mississippi is governed to-day by officials chosen 
through fraud and violence, such as would scarcely be 
accredited to savages, much less to a civilized and Christian 
people." 

To Gov. Chamberlain of South Carolina he 
says, — 

" Go on in the conscientious discharge of duties to the 
humblest as well as to the proudest citizen, and I will give 
every aid for which I can find law or constitutional power." 

Thus, during the administration of Grant, the 
States where the black race balanced or out- 
numbered the white were politically in posses- 
sion of the loyal party. 

That party was composed of a race reared in 
slavery — therefore unused to responsibility — and 
of a portion of the white race, from both North 
and South, who held Republican views from prin- 



THE OLD FIGHT IN A NEW FORM. II 7 

ciple, but were inclined in many cases to use power 
for self-interest. Legislation coming from such 
sources was sure to be improvident. Often wild 
in its extravagance, and sometimes unjust in its 
nature, it could not but be a failure. This phase 
of affairs, under the attempt to project a new race 
into the experiment of civilization, was as much a 
natural phenomenon as the half-light of the dawn 
that comes between night and day. 

In this experiment the old rulers of the South 
were set against the old slaves and their new 
friends, and in all ways resisted their authority. 

Such a political soil was ready to receive the 
seed of inflation. Black Republicans expected to 
become learned by large outlays for educational 
purposes. The whites of the party hoped to get 
rich by putting the credit of the State into rail- 
road projects ; in this they were not sinners 
above all other men. In peculation, pure and sim- 
ple, one year of Democratic robbery in the city of 
New York amounted to more than the entire sum 
of theft perpetrated in all the States of the South 
in all the time they were in Republican hands. 

There is no form of Republican government 
possible, but in the agreement to obey the will of 
the majority "for better or worse." Republics, if 
they continue republics, like water in motion, 
will finally run clear. 

It was the duty of Grant, under his oath of 
office, to sustain the States, into whatever hands 
they came, by legal operation, He did so with 



Ii8 ABOUT GRANT. 

the power he had through the " appropriate legis- 
lation " of Congress. 

He regretted the mistakes and misdeeds of the 
Southern Republicans ; but he had more faith for 
the ultimate prosperity of that section in the 
Republican than in the "old" party. 

"Home rule" became the policy of the "old" 
South. It meant this : wherever there was a 
Republican majority, to shoot that majority down, 
or "terrorize" it until the Republican excess was 
reduced to a minority. 

Then came the domination of the lawless 
South. The planters were stocked with the most 
improved rifles, and used them in the service of 
" home rule." 

The authority of the United States was openly 
defied, the loyal judiciary was imperilled, and 
home rule flourished amid the rattle of shot-guns, 
the thud of the rifle-ball, and the light of burning 
churches and schoolhouses, with which the vandals 
of the South made lurid the Southern sky. 

To meet this emergency Grant asked for "ap- 
propriate legislation " to combat unlawful with 
lawful force. 

For the first time the people failed him, and his 
arms were pinioned. 

The panic of 1873 had created consternation 
and havoc in politics. 

The election of 1874 went against the adminis- 
tration. 

" Change for the sake of change," was a com- 
mon demand. 



THE OLD FIGHT IN A NEW FORM. 119 

Pity for the " home rulers " was a rallying cry 
with all Democrats and some weak Northern 
Republicans. 

Convention's and mass-meetings were convened 
in the principal cities to give the South fair play ; 
that is, where there were three blacks and two 
whites, to see to it that the whites governed "any- 
how." 

As all the evils of corruption in the North had 
been laid to "Grantism," so all the debts, disas- 
ters, and disorganization of the South were claimed 
to be due to the " carpet-bagger " and to the ad- 
ministration of Grant. 

The popular vote of 1874, with regard to non- 
interference by federal force with local govern- 
ment, may be considered irrevocable. Right or 
wrong, it must be deemed an ultimate decision. 

There is a fable that a northern race of ele- 
phants in India have all the size, but not quite 
the wisdom, of their kind. One of this class was 
elected to govern the animal kingdom. The 
wolves got from him permission to take a little 
wool from the sheep to protect themselves from 
the cold winter. The sheep made complaint that 
they were being outraged by this "home rule" of 
the northern elephant. In defence the wolves 
said the sheep were making an unnecessary fuss: 
"All they took in a whole year was a single fleece" 
— "Well, well," said the Bourbon elephant, "I 
will have no injustice done. Take one fleece from 
each, but not a hair more" 



120 ABOUT GRANT. 

The following is a specimen of the workings of 
"home rule :" — 

The Hamburgh massacre took place in 1876. 
Its leader is now a United-States senator from 
South Carolina. 

In 1875 a committee of the Senate of the United 
States investigated the affairs of Mississippi. The 
conclusion of the report says, — 

" The evidence shows further that the State of Missis- 
sippi is at present under the control of political organiza- 
tions composed largely of armed men, whose common pur- 
pose is to deprive the negroes of the free exercise of the 
right of suffrage, and to establish and maintain the suprem- 
acy of the white-line Democracy in violation alike of the 
Constitution of their own State and the Constitution of the 
United States." 

Murder for political opinions, and denial of con- 
stitutional rights to the blacks, have ended in the 
present voluntary exile of the freedmen. 

Seeing their lot becoming harder each year, that 
less provision in many States is made for their 
education, 1 and that their fate under the present 

1 " How Arkansas Negroes are kept Ignorant. — All the ne- 
groes of the county are congregated in Bentonville, where their children 
are growing up in ignorance. The school law of the State makes some 
nominal provision for negro schools ; but they have no school building, and 
I believe they never had a school. The class of negroes that hang 
around the outskirts of a town are seldom of any consequence ; and those 
of Bentonville are no exception. The men drink what whiskey they can 
get, do a little gardening for a mere song, run errands, and serve as scape- 
goats for all the petit larcenies perpetrated for miles around. . In fact, all 
the stealing is accredited to ' them niggers ; ' but I noticed that there 
were no ' niggers ' before the grand jury for any offence, while there were 
several clear-blooded Caucasians, to the manner born, lying in jail await- 
ing trial. " — Cor. Troy Times. 



THE OLD FIGHT IN A NEW FORM. 121 

rule will certainly reduce them to virtual peonage, 
they are striking out for a better country. The 
exodus is the legitimate result of " home rule." 

On the 9th of June, 1879, the papers, referring 
to the exodus, remarked that, — 

" Between Baton Rouge in Louisiana and St. Louis in 
Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River, are a large 
number of companies of black people, — men, women, and 
children, — who have sold all they had, and started on an 
emigration to the West. The number is estimated at near- 
ly eight thousand. The places of their bivouac are per- 
fectly known by correspondence. The people have left 
home, and are now simply waiting for the means of travel. 
They are starving while they wait. They are in unfriendly 
surroundings. They supposed they were American citizens, 
with the rights of American citizens. But it proves that 
certain steamboat-captains take the privilege of deciding 
whether they ought to emigrate, or ought not, and leave 
them, by their decision, to die where they are." 

These facts justify the statement that the South 
is unchanged, or, more correctly, the statement 
that her last state in some features is worse than 
the first. It must not be forgotten that the evi- 
dence of unpunished murderers of black and white 
Republicans stamps as a base mockery the phan- 
tom of Southern justice, that the obliteration of a 
vast political organization by the peremptory appli- 
cation of powder and bullet brands as an infamous 
falsehood the plea of equal rights. 

One thing more should be remembered. From 
the tongue of no prominent Southern man has 
ever come an acknowledgment of wrong-doing in 



122 ABOUT GRANT. 

forcing war on this nation. To utter such a senti- 
ment would deprive the statesman who avowed it 
of social and political standing. Why speak of a 
consistent peace when the righteousness of the act 
which procured it is denied by the solid South ? 

At the one-hundredth anniversary of the battle 
of Bunker Hill, every effort was made by New 
England to welcome the South. Distinguished 
guests from that section were entertained with the 
hospitality of the State of Massachusetts and the 
city of Boston. Spacious halls decorated with 
floral loveliness were open to the reception of our 
Southern fellow-citizens. A hundred thousand 
voices cheered them as they were recognized in 
the moving pageant. Yet no warmth of hospi- 
tality could win from the Southern visitors the 
admission that to fight to break up a free gov- 
ernment, and to build up a slave government, was 
wrong of itself. 

The same public sentiment at home that closes 
the gangway of the steamer to the fleeing freed- 
men closes the lips of the representative of the 
"solid South" at Bunker Hill or at Washington 
to the confession that liberty for all is a diviner 
principle than liberty for some. 

In a letter to Gov. Chamberlain of South Caro- 
lina, written in July, 1876, Grant advised him to 
continue the conscientious discharge of his duties. 
He stated with precision the whole scope of con- 
stitutional power, saying, " A government that 
cannot give protection to the life, property, and all 



THE OLD FIGHT IN A NEW FORM. 123 

guaranteed civil rights (in this country the greatest 
is an untrammelled ballot) to the citizen, is so far 
a failure, and every energy of the oppressed should 
be exerted (always within the law and by constitu- 
tional means) to regain lost privileges or protec- 
tion." 

To-day there is no government in a majority of 
the Southern States to protect the life, liberty, or 
ballot of the minority. 

In the old Byzantine wars the conquerors chained 
their captives together in bands, and pierced their 
eyeballs with red-hot irons. To the leader they 
would spare a single eye, that he might guide his 
forlorn and sightless companions to their moun- 
tain homes. 

Unless the Providence of God intervenes to 
create a new and better political sentiment in the 
South, the inhuman discipline of " home rule " 
will blind with ignorance and fetter with debt the 
doomed blacks, until, losing heart and hope, they 
will slowly wander back to the degradation of that 
bondage from which it was thought they had 
mercifully escaped. 



GRANT AND CONSTITUTIONAL 
MONEY. 



"Congress shall have power . . . 

" To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; . . . 
11 To coin money, regulate value thereof." — Constitution of the United 
States. 

" I am not a believer in any artificial method of making paper money 
equal to coin when the coin is not owned or held ready to redeem the 
promises to pay ; for paper money is nothing more than promises to 
pay." — Grant's Veto Message on the Senate Currency Bill. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE WAR DOLLAR. 

The campaign of 1868 was the beginning of a 
contest over public honesty not yet ended. The 
platform of the Democratic party submitted that, 
"Where the obligations of the government do not 
expressly state upon their face, or the law under 
which they were passed does not provide, that 
they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and 
in justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the 
United States." This meant to force the ex- 
change of interest-bearing bonds for " green- 
backs " not carrying interest. It was on that 
direct issue, keeping faith or breaking it, that the 
battle was fought. The incentive of the Demo- 
cratic action was the belief that men had a nat- 
ural bias for cheating, and would gladly avoid 
paying their debts if possible. 

As the greenback stated on its face that it could 
legally satisfy all debts but interest and imposts, 
Democrats held that it could discharge public 
obligations. The most debasing appeals to cupid- 
ity and prejudice were made. 

It was asked if the glutted bondholder should 

127 



128 ABOUT GRANT. 

have coin, and the hard-fisted ploughholder should 
have paper ? It was openly said that the bonds 
were owed abroad, and "who cares if foreigners 
are not paid?" It was urged that the interest 
already paid had in some cases amounted to as 
much as had been received for the bonds ; and so 
to " square off " would be about right. Republi- 
cans marched under the banners of public faith. 
Their fight is thus described : " On the one side 
are loyal multitudes, and the generous freedmen 
who bared themselves to danger as our allies, with 
Grant still at their head ; and on the other side 
are rebels under the name of the Democratic 
party." 

Republicans said, no matter if, by a quibble, we 
could slink out of the legal obligation to pay the 
bonds in coin : morally we were bound so to do, 
inasmuch as all parties at the time understood 
the contract in that way. The people declared 
their preference to be honest, and pay their debts 
when within their power. After pouring out the 
life-blood of the nation because they chose to 
fight rather than violate conscience, they spurned 
the temptation to wrong those who had loaned 
money to carry on the war, by taking advantage 
of a flaw or omission in the bond. The people 
elected Grant on the basis of honest payment. 

"A great debt has been contracted in securing to us 
and our posterity the Union. The payment of this, princi- 
pal and interest, as well as the return to specie basis as soon 
as it can be accomplished without material detriment to the 



THE WAR DOLLAR. 1 29 

debtor class, or the country at large, must be provided for. 
To protect the national honor, every dollar of government 
indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise ex- 
pressly stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood 
that no repudiator of one farthing of our public debt will 
be trusted in public place, and it will go far towards strength- 
ening a credit which ought to be the best in the world, and 
will ultimately enable us to replace the debt with bonds 
bearing less interest than we now pay." 

So said Grant in his first inaugural, and it led 
to the passage of the Public Credit Act : — 

" That, in order to remove any doubt as to the purpose 
of the government to discharge all just obligations to the 
public creditors, and to settle conflicting questions and inter- 
pretations of the law by virtue of which such obligations 
have been contracted, it is hereby provided and declared, 
that the faith of the United States is solemnly pledged to 
the payment in coin, or its equivalent, of all the obligations 
of the United States not bearing interest, known as United- 
States notes, and of all the interest-bearing obligations of 
the United States, except in cases where the law authoriz- 
ing the issue of any such obligation has expressly provided 
that the same may be paid in lawful money, or other cur- 
rency than gold and silver; but none of said interest-bearing 
obligations not already due shall be redeemed or paid before 
maturity unless at such time United-States notes shall be 
convertible into coin at the option of the holder, or unless 
at such time bonds of the United States bearing a lower 
rate of interest than the bonds to be redeemed can be sold 
at par in coin. And the United States also solemnly pledges 
its faith to make provision at the practicable period for the 
redemption of the United-States notes in coin." 

This may be termed the loyal creed of honesty. 
It was carried over millions of Democratic ballots, 



13° 



ABOUT GRANT. 



and but for the personal popularity of Grant might 
not have been so triumphant. 

The currency of the war was not money, and 
did not purport to be any thing but the best 
substitute in the place of money, that, in the exi- 
gencies that existed, could be devised. It was a 
promise to the holder to produce money at the 
option of the maker of the promise. Its excuse 
for being was the peril of the land. " Any thing 
is constitutional to save the country," said Lincoln 
when they told him his call for troops was uncon- 
stitutional. It was on that principle that the 
" legal-tender " note became the war dollar. 

The country had to pay dearly for this intro- 
duction of paper currency. While war was de- 
stroying vast amounts of property, the use of 
vast amounts of this paper medium was required. 
When the destruction by war ceased, the paper 
volume was employed in piling up personal prop- 
erty of all kinds. 

There was an overstock of railroads, mills, 
buildings, manufactured articles, which made an 
unnatural demand for labor at impossible wages. 

A crash came, calamitous in its suspension of 
all departments of industry, fearful in its contrac- 
tion of estimates, deplorable in its mercantile de- 
pression. It swept away incomes, drove labor to 
the wall, and caused want and hunger to come 
to centres of population, and poverty to visit 
homes where comfort and luxury had always been 
enjoyed. The prostration of thrift and commerce 



THE WAR DOLLAR. 13 1 

was the price paid for attempting to employ 
in peace a currency made by and absorbed in 
war. Though we are now recovering from the 
disheartening consequences of the late painful 
business trials, another misfortune came with paper 
currency, from which we have not yet rallied and 
are not soon likely to rally. It created an appetite 
for permanent inflation. It gave rise to a wild 
financial school. They who found it "against 
their principle to pay interest," or against their 
"interest to pay principal," rallied for a paper mil- 
lennium. The heaviest curse produced by paper 
currency was the popular folly which demanded 
the political or paper dollar as a medium of ex- 
change. 



132 ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE FIAT DOLLAR. 

The friends of the "fiat" dollar boldly said 
their dollar must be worthless in itself, but should 
pass as the circulating medium of barter between 
man and man by the sheer power of the majority. 
Law, they told us, gives to money its function, and 
it can give function to any thing. 

It was a device, we were told, of the capitalist, 
that money shall possess value. Valuable money 
is hoarded. Valueless money has the faculty to be 
got rid of, and that makes things lively. A late 
utterance of a Solon of " fiat " was : " At the pres- 
ent time the gold dollar of the money-king has a 
purchasing power from forty to sixty per cent 
greater than before the war. At the present time 
the masses do not have the necessary money to 
purchase the goods which now glut the market." 
It is an essential tenet of communism, that when 
the individual is short of any thing the State shall 
furnish it. The soul of the " fiat dollar " is com- 
munistic. 

In a country where suffrage is universal, the 
vote must represent false or true principles of 
action. The voter here is undergoing some kind 



THE FIAT DOLLAR. 133 

of education. More extensively than ever before, 
among the great army of the "dissatisfied," among 
the mechanics who are sullen from struggle with 
life, among the merchants, speculators, and manip- 
ulators, who remember the " kiting" days of the 
past, the seeds of communism are being scattered 
profusely, and are taking root. The literature of 
the International is freely disseminated ; and the 
most flagrant pandering to the envy and jeal- 
ousy of those who have little, against those who 
have much, is the outgrowth of that communistic 
spirit which with us flourishes wherever the paper 
theory succeeds. Fiat conventions do not put 
communism in their platforms, but their private 
conversation reeks with the foul heresy. 

Tell a fiat enthusiast that the Constitution is 
adverse to his opinions, — that Congress has only 
power to "coin money," — he will tell you that he 
interprets the Constitution to have the implied 
power to do every thing for the people that has 
not in that document been forbidden by the people. 

A man bought a horse of a church-member, 
and found he was spavined. He went to him, and 
asked, " Are you a Christian ? " 

"Well, yes, I think I am." 

" Do you read the Bible ? " 

"I do." 

"You had better read it again." 

"Why?" 

"You sold me a horse with spavin." 

"You look here. You just go over the Bible 



134 ABOUT GRANT. 

yourself, and, if you find one word in it where a 
Christian is required to mention spavin in connec- 
tion with a horse-trade, I'll take him back." 

The paper financier, not finding a word in the 
Constitution that says Congress shall not make 
paper money, says Congress can and shall make a 
"greenback." 

The disciples of inflation might learn a lesson 
from the story of Ulysses. 

When about to start homeward after tarrying 
with the God of Winds, to hasten his journey 
Eolus tied the contrary winds in a bag, — 

" With a bright chain of silver, that no breath 
Of ruder air might blow. He only left 
The west wind free-to waft our ships and us 
Upon our way." 

The travellers had come almost in sight of their 
native shore ; and, while Ulysses slept, the sailors 
complained that wherever they had been together, 
" rich gifts of gold and silver " had been tendered 
to the chief alone, though all had shared the perils 
of the voyage. Curiosity led them to examine the 
concealed treasure. 

" Thus speaking to each other, they obeyed 
The evil counsel. They untied the sack, 
And straight the winds rushed forth, and seized the ship, 
And swept the crews, lamenting bitterly, 
Far from their country, out upon the deep." 

There is no need to " point this moral : " to 
"adorn the tale " is a hopeless task. 



THE FIA T DOLLAR. 135 

The war currency had no support from Grant in 
its unredeemed state. He said, — 

" Fluctuation, in the paper value of the measure of all 
values (gold), is detrimental to the interests of trade. It 
makes the man of business an involuntary gambler ; for, in 
all sales where future payment is to be made, both parties 
speculate as to what will be the value of the currency to be 
paid and received. I earnestly recommend to you, then, 
such legislation as will insure a gradual return to specie 
payments, and put an immediate stop to fluctuations in the 
value of currency." — Inaugural^ i86g. 



136 ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER XXL 

THE HONEST DOLLAR. 

In his first message Grant called attention to 
the fact that "among the evils growing out of the 
Rebellion, is that of an irredeemable currency. It 
is an evil which I hope will receive your earliest 
attention. It is a duty, and one of the highest 
duties, of government, to secure to the citizen a 
medium of exchange of fixed, unvarying value. 
This implies a return to specie basis, and no sub- 
stitute for it can be devised." 

In 1875 a law was passed containing the clause, 
"On and after the first day of January, Anno 
Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, the 
Secretary of the Treasury shall redeem, in coin, 
the United-States legal-tender notes then out- 
standing, on their presentation for redemption at 
the office of the Assistant Treasurer of the United 
States, in the city of New York, in sums of not 
less than fifty dollars." 

Most extraordinary pressure was brought to 
bear upon the President, to induce him to with- 
hold his signature from the Resumption Bill. 

Many of Grant's warmest personal friends were 
ardent inflationists. Eminent bankers, leading 



THE HONEST DOLLAR. 137 

merchants, men with the care of great railroad 
enterprises, by petition, by personal appeal, by 
letter, and by telegraph, warned him of ruin to the 
country by forcing resumption. 

Prominent Republicans doubted the policy of 
naming a day when we should redeem. It was 
derided as a party dodge and a visionary scheme. 
Not for one moment did Grant waver. He felt 
that if the occasion slipped by, it might not come 
again. The bill was right. The vital interests of 
the country demanded that we should come back to 
financial sanity. The honor of the people could 
only be maintained by redeeming their outstand- 
ing pledges. By his act the bill became law,- and 
because of that act resumption is now an accom- 
plished fact. It was among the last acts of special 
importance in his administration, and was the con- 
summation of a recommendation made by him in 
his first state paper. It was the finality of the 
war currency; and by this act the American peo- 
ple once more had a circulation convertible into 
specie, the honest, constitutional money of "their 
fathers." 

We are to-day — because we had Grant for 
President — regarded by the world as an honest 
nation. Our credit is second only to that of Eng- 
land. 

We are not, however, out of danger. Formid- 
able agencies are at work to take from us our 
"good name " for honesty. Stripped of sophistry, 
the " greenback " agitation was a crusade of dis- 
honesty. 



138 ABOUT GRANT. 

There is, in kind, no difference of morality be- 
tween the act of the highwayman who takes a 
purse after presenting his pistol, and the act of 
a voter who scales a debt by dishonest legislation. 
The motive in both cases is to get that which 
belongs to another: it is the method only that 
varies. The champions of cheap money are, j list 
now, beaten ; but the area of dishonesty has not 
been contracted, its activities are not lessened. 

Twelve States have repudiated more or less of 
their debts. Eleven of them are Southern ; one, 
to its shame, is a Northern State. Nearly a third 
of the Republic has upon it the stain of dishonor. 

Capital and labor are very far from being upon 
the terms of amity needed for their common inter- 
est. We are separating into classes ; habits are 
changing; feelings of bitterness, strange to this 
country, are being manifested, and the breach be- 
tween the "well-to-do" and the ill-provided-for is 
widening. 

Late immigration brings us more agitators and 
less agriculturists than formerly. 

Commercial integrity is more and more inclined 
to find its incentive rather in the maxim that 
"honesty pays," than in the principle of ac- 
countability to a higher than earthly tribunal. 
Every large town and city with us has resorts 
where levelling and agrarian ideas fester and 
spread, and the ignorant voter is receiving a 
street and shop education tainted with the social- 
ism of Germany and the nihilism of Russia. The 



THE HONEST DOLLAR. 139 

thin end of the communistic wedge is labelled 
"cheap money." Cheap money is always bad 
money. Said Grant, in one of his messages, 
" A poorer currency will always drive the better 
out of circulation. With paper a legal tender, 
and at a discount, gold and silver become articles 
of merchandise as much as wheat or cotton. 
The surplus will find the best market." 

What we need in this country is thorough 
primary discussion, face to face with the people, 
on the elementary principles of political economy. 
The delusion that there is any easy way or short 
cut out of the inequalities of human conditions 
is as cruel in its effect as it is false in its start. 
Opportunity for each and all to get out of the 
world all they can, by all ways and means except 
immoral, selfish, and illegal ones, is the central 
principle of our government. There is a moral 
obligation to use means, power, and talent for the 
common good ; but to regulate morals is beyond 
the province of law. 

We are soon to be in a political controversy over 
the function of silver as money. Silver, when 
coined, is constitutional money — but a silver 
dollar can be a lie or a truth. Silver payment 
can be just or unjust. It is right to use silver 
in a right way ; it has value, and should be used 
for what it is worth. It may be wise for us to 
co-operate for the recognition by all nations of 
silver as money, when coined. 

The silver issue will enter into the coming 



140 ABOUT GRANT. 

grave national campaign of 1880, and the Demo- 
crats and inflationists will "pull together." In 
their hands the volume of silver is to be carried 
to the point of utmost depreciation. Their cardi- 
nal point is cheap money, or money that will 
"float." 

To cheapen silver is to raise prices, and they are 
for high prices. It will enable the debtor to pay 
his creditor in a less value than the latter had a 
right to expect. To make ninety, eighty, or sixty 
cents in payment do the work of one hundred 
cents of contract, is to the expansionist a " con- 
summation devoutly to be wished." 

The Republicans of the country are to join 
issue on the silver fight. They will deal with 
this metal as they did with the war-currency, — 
justly. It will be their object to make silver as 
they made the "greenback," as "good as gold," 
so that silver and paper alike shall represent an 
honest dollar. 

It was fourteen years prior to the passage of the 
Resumption Act that Grant had left the humble 
tanyard at Galena, to respond to the call of his 
country. 

He had, by what some regard as destiny, but 
others more reverently hold to be the guidance 
of Providence, been permitted to do great deeds 
and to receive great honors. 

With the aid of his trusted generals and his 
loyal legions, he had carried the flag of the nation 
through all the vicissitudes of war, and had brought 



THE HONEST DOLLAR. 141 



it back to the American people with every star 
shining and its stripes purified by victory. 

The grateful nation had created for him a mili- 
tary honor no other American had ever borne. 
Twice he had been chosen chief magistrate, serv- 
ing through eight years of unparalleled civil con- 
fusion and unprecedented commercial desolation. 
By the help of his loyal associates in other 
branches of government, he had been enabled to 
bring back the "age of gold," and had thereby 
added to the renown of America not only the title 
of a brave, but the higher glory of an honest, peo- 
ple. Will we keep the honor? 



GRANT AS A RETIRED CESAR. 



"Tell me, O Muse! of that sagacious man, 
Who, having overthrown the sacred town 
Of Ilium, wandered far, and visited 
The capitals of many nations." — Odyssey. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

IMPERIALISM. 

When the comet resembled a cross, it received 
the blessing of the chief pontiff: when it as- 
sumed the shape of a Turkish cimeter, the head 
of the Church cursed it vigorously. Popular 
adulation passes into popular censure sometimes 
with equal rapidity. Periodically this country is 
afflicted with spasms over some imagined case 
of imperialism. At an early date in our history 
Jefferson was seized with an apprehension that 
we were on the brink of monarchy. If John 
Adams wore curled hair, or indulged in the pomp- 
ous airs for which he was said to be noted, the 
Jefferson school saw crowned heads and sceptres 
in the distance. This school was in constant ter- 
ror over a possible king. 1 

1 John Adams says that the difference between him and Jefferson was, 
i. In the difference between speeches and messages. I was a monarchist. 
I thought a speech more manly, more respectful to Congress and the 
nation : Jefferson and Rush preferred messages. 2. I held levees once a 
week, that all of my time might not be wasted in idle visits: Jefferson's 
whole eight years was a levee. 3. I dined a large company once or twice 
a week : Jefferson dined a dozen every day. 4. Jefferson and Rush were 
for liberty and straight hair : I thought curled hair as republican as 
straight. 

M5 



146 ABOUT GRANT. 

This nervous Jeffersonian trait has been trans- 
mitted; and every generation has had its timid 
prophets, who have seen " handwritings on the 
wall," that portended the Atlantic Caesar. Said 
a State legislator, " I'm agin five-inch cart-wheels. 
Our fathers did their business with four-inch ones. 
If they was good enough for them, they .is good 
enough for us. I'm agin this five-inch move. I 
see monarchy in it." Caesarphobia is found in 
two extremes, — the backwoods statesman of hay- 
seed propensities, and the Eastern dilettant who 
has run to seed. It was the touching statement 
of Pecksniff that " in the nose of my eldest and 
chin of my youngest their sainted parent lives 
ag-ain." In the boisterous rhetoric of the frontier 
granger, and the polished sentences of the Atlan- 
tic pamphleteer, the spirit of Jefferson lives again. 
Grant was the occasion of the latest imperialistic 
scare. The possibility that he might be chosen 
three consecutive terms gave rise to an outcry 
against the monarchical tendency. The doubtful 
dasher which troubled the vision of Macbeth found 
a counterpart in the royal blade that in imagina- 
tion waved in the hands of Grant. Caesarism was 
the synonyme of Grantism. The classics were 
searched to find examples of ambitious men who 
had plotted for empire, to range beside our Caesar. 
If Grant travelled in a steamboat on which a brass- 
band discoursed music, if he drove "a four-in- 
hand " at Long Branch, or if he asked for troops 
to protect the hunted black people, to some these 



IMPERIA L ISM. 1 4 7 

affairs were " confirmation strong " that Grant in- 
tended to seize the government, and that he was 
practising the role of king. Frantic harangues 
were made by alarmists ; and ink-black warnings 
written by excited correspondents, that Grant 
never would give up the Presidency, but would 
become a military dictator. 

The man, of whom it was predicted that he 
would perpetuate his power at the point of the 
bayonet, withdrew from the public in the most 
quiet and unostentatious manner ; gladly leaving 
his high civic station to re-enter private life. In- 
stead of seeking to wield the sword of empire, 
Grant has never been known to lift his finger for 
his own advancement. In a letter he had said, — 

" Now for the third term. I do not want it any more 
than I did the first. I would not write or utter a word to 
change the will of the people in expressing and having their 
choice. The question of the number of terms allowed to 
any one executive can only come up fairly in the shape of a 
proposition to amend the Constitution, — a shape in which 
all political parties can participate, fixing the length of time 
or the number of terms for which any one person shall be 
eligible for the office of President. Until such an amend- 
ment is adopted, the people cannot be restricted in their 
choice by resolution further than they are now restricted as 
to age, nativity, &c. 

" It may happen in the future history of the country, that 
to change an executive because he has been eight years 
in office will prove unfortunate, if not disastrous. The idea 
that any man could elect himself President, or even renomi- 
nate himself, is preposterous. It is a reflection upon the 
intelligence and patriotism of the people to suppose such a 



148 ABOUT GRANT. 

thing possible. Any man can destroy his chances for the 
office, but no one can force an election, or even a nomina- 
tion. To recapitulate : I am not, nor have I ever been, a 
candidate for a renomination. I would not accept a nomi- 
nation if it were tendered unless it should come under such 
circumstances as to make it an imperative duty, — circum- 
stances not likely to arise." 

Faithful to the contents of this letter, Grant, 
after being elevated from an obscure position to 
become chief among forty millions of people, laid 
down his honors not only without a murmur, but 
with a sense of relief, — going back to the people 
after serving their will, seeking nothing, desir- 
ing nothing, but the privileges of a retirement 
that could only be disturbed by the command of 
the people, which to him has ever been a summons 
to duty. From the moment that one of his towns- 
men by persistent effort obtained for him a subor- 
dinate appointment in the volunteer army, to the 
time of his return to the ranks of citizenship, 
every honor had come to him unsought. While 
suffering unjust treatment, and subject to un- 
founded suspicion, he did not resort to political 
influence for vindication. 

In all matters of public policy the public judg- 
ment was law to him. Examine his eventful 
career with the closest scrutiny, and not a sign of 
intrigue or inclination for personal aggrandizement 
can be traced. Yet speeches elaborately prepared, 
requiring hours for delivering, sought to prove 
him the basest aspirant for place, and to fasten 



IMPERIALISM. 149 

upon him the stain of imperial ambition. A 
stream of vilification poured over him for years. 
No instance of sordid greed for wealth or glaring 
thirst for power, and nothing of disrepute that 
imagination could invent when history failed, were 
left unhidden or unsaid by those who had banded 
to counteract the power of Grant by blasting his 
reputation. There were great men who did this, 
believing that duty required the task. There were 
little men who echoed these sentiments for the 
notoriety which comes from the mere fact of abus- 
ing men of eminence. " A very small fly can 
worry a very large horse, and still the fly is a fly, 
and the horse is a horse," is a saying attributed 
to Dr. Johnson. Human flies have some capacity 
for annoyance if they have none for positive in- 
jury. 

In relinquishing official responsibility, Grant 
looked forward to that enjoyment at home, and 
pleasure by travel abroad, impossible while in 
public position. His modesty in speech, and his 
desire for others to share the attentions heaped 
upon him, is the best answer that can be made to 
the dribble and nonsense about imperialism. 

In taking leave of his friends at Philadelphia, 
before starting upon his now famous foreign tour, 
he said in reply to very complimentary remarks, — 

" I do not regard myself as entitled to all the 
praise. I believe that my friend Sherman could 
have taken my place as a soldier as well as I 
could, and the same will apply to Sheridan." 



150 ABOUT GRANT. 

"I -believe," said he, "that, if our country ever 
comes into trouble again, young men will spring 
up equal to the occasion, and if one fails there will 
be another to take his place." If that is the spirit 
and language of "Csesarism," the more of it the 
better for the country. 

Over the bier of William Lloyd Garrison, Wen- 
dell Phillips pronounced a sentence that should 
be cut in marble or raised in bronze, upon the 
monument yet to commemorate the noblest of 
all Puritan philanthropists : — 

"If you seek through the hidden causes 
and unheeded events for the hand that 
wrote Emancipation on the statute-books 

AND ON THE FLAG, IT LIES STILL THERE TO-DAY." 

It lessens no honor due the man who consecrated 
his life to the cause of the slave, to avow the fact 
that the same overruling power which gave effect 
to the pen of Garrison also guided the sword of 
Grant when it cut the Gordian knot which, from 
the origin of the nation, had been alike our 
danger and our dishonor. The great agitator is 
dead. The magistrate whose signature made 
emancipation legal became the martyr of loyalty. 
The soldier who led the triumphant armies which 
made emancipation a fact survives those associ- 
ated with the grandest event since the Christian 
era began. He takes rank justly as our first liv- 
ing citizen. 

It is the recreation of Carlyle to scoff at our 
country and our countrymen. It has been said 



. IMPERIALISM. 1 5 1 

that he regards the time spent in the company of 
Americans as lost. To avenge himself for the 
"forced loan" of his society to Americans, which 
etiquette sometimes requires him to make, Carlyle 
wounds his listeners in a tender place, by assert- 
ing, in his broadest Scotch dialect, that " G-e-a-r-g-e 
Washington did not amount to much either as a 
statesman or general." Frederick the Great, in 
the fourth year of the " Seven Years' War," was 
beaten near his capital. It was a " universal rout." 
" Shattered in body and in mind," the retreating 
king found refuge in a deserted farmhouse. He 
sent a despatch to the royal family to leave Berlin. 
" The defeat was in truth overwhelming ; of the 
fifty thousand men who had that morning marched 
under the black eagles, not three thousand re- 
mained together." Of Frederick it has been said, 
that " his heart was ulcerated with hatred." He 
once wrote, " I begin to feel, as the Italians say, 
revenge is a pleasure for the gods. My philoso- 
phy is worn out by suffering. I am no saint like 
those of whom we read in the legends ; and I will 
own that I should die content if I could only first 
inflict a portion of the misery which I endure." 
Carlyle spent fifteen years in writing the life of 
Frederick the Great. A number of bulky volumes 
contain his estimate of that Prussian soldier. 
Surely we can afford to be patient under the spite 
of the eminent Scotch termagant, as he projects 
his gall upon the men and the ideas of America, 
when we can present in contrast to his famous 



152 ABOUT GRANT. 

hero a captain who never lost a battle, and whose 
heart never felt any sentiment of hatred to the 
foes he fought and conquered. 

Edmond de Pressense, writing on Thiers, says, 
" This was he whom last year the Chamber of 
Deputies named with acclamation when it inter- 
rupted M. de Fourtou, the worthy minister of the 
government of intriguers and conspirators, which 
had grasped the power on the 16th of May, 1877. 
He had here the impudence to pay homage for the 
liberation of the country to the monarchical ma- 
jority of the National Assembly, when more than 
three hundred deputies rose like a single man, and, 
pointing at the illustrious old man, exclaimed, " Le 
voila, le liberateur de la France, le voila ! " 

Should the question be put to the American 
people, what one of their number had been most 
instrumental in aiding the supremacy of the flag 
upon which Emancipation was written, and who 
in the calm of peace had done most to write upon 
that flag the word Honor after Liberty and Loy- 
alty, it would be the acclaim of the nation that 
this great dignity belonged to Grant. 



GRANT ABROAD. 153 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

GRANT ABROAD. 

Priggish Americans have been made very un- 
comfortable by the manners of both Lincoln and 
Grant. Taking their idea of presidential deport- 
ment from Everett's finished discourse upon Wash- 
ington, and being impressed with the fact that the 
first chief magistrate rarely, if ever, smiled in his 
maturer years, the awkward appearance of Lin- 
coln and his fondness for stories, the impertur- 
bability of Grant and his attachment to horses, — 
have been a perpetual source of irritation to those 
who have notions of decorum based on the sound- 
est provincial standards. These might find relief 
in their distress by reading Emerson, the most 
genial, if not the most authoritative, of the apos- 
tles of culture. Says Emerson, " The hero should 
find himself at home, wherever he is ; should im- 
part comfort, by his own security and good-nature, 
to all beholders. The hero is suffered to be him- 
self. A person of strong mind comes to perceive 
that for him an immunity is secured so long as he 
renders to society that service which is native and 
proper to him ; an immunity from all the observ- 
ances, yea, and duties, which society so tyranni- 



154 ABOUT GRANT. 

cally imposes on the rank and file of its members." 
For two years the man of whom it had been often 
remarked, " He is a consummate soldier, but under 
no circumstances could he ever act the gentleman" 
has been in the society of " princes, potentates, 
and powers ; " and has passed the social ordeal, 
not only with sufficient decorum, but with great 
distinction. The fine adaptation of his responses 
to the immediate and exact duty before him, and 
his manly modesty in attributing to the greatness 
of the nation over which he had presided, the 
cause of the marked attention accorded to him, 
cannot fail to strike with admiration whoever has 
read or may read his travels abroad. Replying to 
the mayor of Manchester, England, he said, " I was 
very well aware, during the war, of the sentiments 
of the great mass of the people of Manchester 
toward the country to which I have the honor to 
belong ; and also the sentiments with regard to 
the struggle in which it fell to my lot to take a 
humble part. ... I therefore accept, on the part 
of my country, the compliments which have been 
paid to me as its representative, and thank you 
for them heartily." 

At Salford he said, " I cannot help feeling that 
it is my country that is honored through me." 

At Leicester, "Allow me in behalf of my coun- 
try to return you thanks for this honor, and for 
your kind reception, as well as for the other 
kind receptions which I have had since the time 
that I first landed on the soil of Great Britain. 



GRANT ABROAD. 155 

As children of this great Commonwealth, we feel 
that you must have some reason to be proud of 
our advancement since, our separation from the 
mother country. I can assure you of our heart- 
felt good-will, and express to you our thanks on 
behalf of the American people." This resem- 
"bles Caesarism as nearly as the cloud on which 
Polonius gazed resembled a whale. At the re- 
ception given to Grant by the American ambassa- 
dor, the apartments were crowded with dukes, 
marquises, earls, the lord chancellor, and lesser 
nobles ; and the prigs may be glad to learn that 
the behavior of the " great horse president " was 
unexceptionable. The freedom of the city of 
London, " the highest honor that can be paid by 
this ancient and renowned corporation," was ex- 
tended to Grant. To the presentation banquet 
eight hundred guests were invited ; and the " free- 
dom of the city was presented in a gold casket," 
and all the ceremonies were of the most interest- 
ing nature. His speech in response to the Lord 
Mayor may be taken as a model of simple strength 
and dignity. It was received with the most hearty 
cheering ; and from the absence in it of toadyism, 
and the "slop-over" trait so common in American 
speeches, it could be imitated with great advan- 
tage by some of our literary lights. 

"It is a matter of some regret to me, that I have never 
cultivated that art of public speaking which might have ena- 
bled me to express in suitable terms my gratitude for the 
compliment which has been paid to my countrymen and my- 



156 ABOUT GRANT. 

self on this occasion. Were I in the habit of speaking in 
public, I should claim the right to express my opinion, and 
what I believe will be the opinion of my countrymen when 
the proceedings of this day shall have been telegraphed to 
them. For myself, I have been very much surprised at my 
reception at all places since the day I landed at Liverpool, 
up to my appearance in this the greatest city in the world. 
It was entirely unexpected, and it is particularly gratifying 
to me. I believe that this honor is intended quite as much 
for the country which I have had the opportunity of serving 
in different capacities, as for myself ; and I am glad that this 
is so, because I want to see the happiest relations existing, 
not only between the United States and Great Britain, but 
also between the United States and all other nations." 

At a dinner given to him by Mr. Thomas 
Hughes, the host, in proposing the health of his 
distinguished guest, relieved him of the " burden 
of a formal reply." Grant, however, rose and said, 
" Mr. Hughes, I must none the less tell you what 
gratification it gives me to hear my health pro- 
posed in such hearty words by Tom Brown of Rug- 
by." A gentleman could hardly have done better. 
He dined with the Prince of Wales, in company 
with the Emperor of Brazil, at the Marlborough 
House ; and later there was a banquet given by the 
Trinity Corporation in their hall on Tower Hill, 
the Prince of Wales presiding. The company 
was a distinguished and brilliant one. Among 
others were Prince Leopold, Prince Christian 
of Schleswig-Holstein, the Prince of Leinengen, 
Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Duke of 
Wellington, and the Earl of Derby. 

The Prince of Wales in his speech said, " It 



GRANT ABROAD. 



157 



is a matter of peculiar gratification to us as Eng- 
lishmen to receive as our guest Gen. Grant. I can 
assure him for myself, and for all the loyal sub- 
jects of the Queen, that it has given me the great- 
est pleasure to see him as a guest in this country." 
From all that can be learned, the conduct of Grant 
in this distinguished society would not have ruffled 
the serenity of the most fastidious taste. The fol- 
lowing unusual invitation was sent : " The Lord 
Steward of her Majesty's household is commanded 
by the Queen to- invite Mr. and Mrs. Grant to 
dinner at Windsor Castle, the 27th inst, and to 
remain until the following day, the 28th of June, 
1877." This exceptional courtesy is more remark- 
able when we recall the frequent charge made 
against the recipient, that he was a " would-be 
Caesar," "and was a person of no breeding, famil- 
iar only with war and horses." Plain " Mr. Grant " 
is a strange address for a scheming imperialist ; 
and it is not generally supposed that the Queen 
of England offers hospitality to ill-bred people. 

Five days after the visit to royalty, Grant re- 
ceived the representative working-men of London. 
After the reading of an address handsomely en- 
grossed on vellum, Grant in response said, — 

" Gentlemen, — In the name of my country I thank you 
for the address you have just presented to me. I feel it a 
great compliment paid to my government, to the former gov- 
ernment, and one to me personally. Since my arrival on 
British soil I have received great attentions ; and, as I feel, 
intended in the same way for my country. I have received 



158 ABOUT GRANT. 

attentions, and have had ovations, free hand-shakings, and 
presentations from different classes, and from the Govern- 
ment, and from the controlling authorities of cities, and 
have been received in the cities by the populace. But there 
is no reception I am prouder of than this one to-day. I 
recognize the fact that whatever there is of greatness in the 
United States, or indeed in any other country, is due to the 
labor performed. The laborer is the author of all greatness 
and wealth. Without labor there would be no government 
or no leading class, or nothing to preserve. With us labor 
is regarded as highly respectable. When it is not so re- 
garded, it is then man dishonors labor. We recognize that 
labor dishonors no man ; and no matter what a man's occu- 
pation is, he is eligible to fill any post in the gift of the peo- 
ple. His occupation is not considered in the selection of 
him, whether as a law-maker or an executor of the law." 

Grant's reply to the mayor of Liverpool is most 
loyal to his country : — 

" Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen, — You have alluded to the 
hearty reception given to me on my first landing on the soil 
of Great Britain, and the expectations of the mayor that this 
reception would be equalled throughout the island have been 
more than realized. It has been far beyond any thing I 
could have expected. [Cheers.] I am a soldier, and the 
gentlemen here beside me know that a soldier must die. I 
have been a president, but we know that the term of the 
presidency expires ; and, when it has expired, he is no more 
than a dead soldier. [Laughter and cheers.] But, gentle- 
men, I have met with a reception that would have done 
honor to any living person. [Cheers.] I feel, however, 
that the compliment has been paid, not to me, but to my 
country. I cannot help but at this moment being highly 
pleased at the good feeling and good sentiment which now 
exist between the two peoples who of all others should be 
good friends. We are of one kindred, of one blood, of one 



GRANT ABROAD. 159 

language, and of one civilization, though in some respects 
we believe that we, being younger, surpass the mother- 
country. [Laughter.] You have made some improvements 
on the soil and the surface of the earth which We have not 
yet done, but which we do not believe will take us as long 
as it took you. [Laughter and applause.] I heard some 
military remarks which impressed me a little at the time. I 
am not quite sure whether they were in favor of the volun- 
teers, or against them. I can only say from my own obser- 
vation, that you have as many troops at Aldershott as we 
have in the whole of our regular army, notwithstanding we 
have many thousands of miles of frontier to guard, and hostile 
Indians to control. But, if it became necessary to raise a 
volunteer force, I do not think we could do better than fol- 
low your example. Gen. Fairchild and myself are examples 
of volunteers who came forward when their assistance was 
necessary ; and I have no doubt that if you ever needed 
such services you would have support from your reserve 
forces and volunteers, far more effective than you can con- 
ceive. [Cheers.] " 

We cannot follow Grant farther. The same 
rising up of people, the same extraordinary court- 
esy from titled and untitled rulers, were seen in 
the Empire of Germany, the Republic of France, 
and the Kingdom of Italy. The ovations of the 
elder continent of Asia were no less cordial than 
those of Europe. India, with her Oriental mag- 
nificence ; China, forgetting for the moment her 
stoicism ; Siam and Japan, stirred to an enthusi- 
asm unfamiliar to Asiatic races, — showered their 
welcome upon the American who has been the 
guest of the world. 

The method with some in controversy, when 



160 ABOUT GRANT. 

argument fails, is to resort to ridicule. There 
being no constitutional objection in choosing a 
President every four years, for as many four years 
as the people see fit, the organs that have con- 
tracted to "smash " the third-term movement meet 
it with gibes. Aware that the position, that to 
elect a President for three terms will end in his 
re-election for life, is to concede that the people 
are incapable of self-government, the plan now is 
to "pooh-pooh" and laugh down the proposition 
to take Grant again. His trip abroad gave rise to 
the following exhibition of anti-third-term wit : — 

" The European nobles would soon fall into the way of 
taking a hand jn the presidential canvass. When an ex- 
President arrived on their shores, they would receive him 
with increasing honors on seeing that it tickled the Ameri- 
cans. Then, if there were two ex-Presidents in the field 
pitted against each other, the campaign orators of each side 
would endeavor to show that their man had had bigger din- 
ners in Europe, and had been received by more crowned 
heads, and had had more elephants in his procession, than 
the other man." 

As this is the sort of intellectual pabulum upon 
which a certain class of voters are fed, and as it 
is perhaps the nearest approach to an argument 
given us by the other side, whoever feels that a 
possible exigency might demand another term for 
Grant, may congratulate himself that the gravest 
danger attending the innovation upon custom 
would be the habit of rival candidates making 
political thunder by ex-presidential trips to Eu- 



GRANT ABROAD. 161 

rope. We can afford to face this bugbear. Grant, 
if re-elected, could not retire till 1885. Should his 
successor prove a Democrat, and serve the usual 
eight years, the "big dinner," "crowned head," 
and "white elephant" rivalry, which now keeps 
awake the guardians of the public virtue, could 
by no means occur until after 1896. These dates 
are given, that the innocent political babes who 
are sustained on such editorial pap may be 
soothed or strengthened. 

It was not because he was an ex-President, but 
because he was Grant, that he had unusual honor. 
A visit by a former ex-President was as free from 
special attention as would be the foreign tour of 
one of the staff of the most prominent organs 
of the eight-years-and-out idea. "The divine 
horses of Persia allow no one to ride them but 
their own heroes." The civilities of Europe are 
proffered, and three presidential terms are sug- 
gested in America, only to the man whose life 
and deeds have made him such a hero as the good 
and brave of the world delight to honor and trust. 
One of the public documents of the United States 
contains two thousand pages, filled with letters 
from all governments of the earth, from famous 
men of letters, from occupants of high station, 
expressing sorrow at the assassination of Abraham 
Lincoln. It may be doubted whether there exists 
another such compilation of heartfelt sympathy. 

There is now being issued an account of the 
journey of Grant around the globe. From this 



1 62 ABOUT GRANT. 

volume we have extracted largely. Its contents 
will number from twelve to fifteen hundred pages. 
It will relate the incidents attending the "visit 
to the capital of many nations" of a living Ameri- 
can. It will tell of the most significant courtesy 
extended by kings and nobles on the one hand, and 
the people on the other, to a republican citizen, 
and one of the " foremost captains of his time." 
Nothing will touch the heart of the reader more 
than the sincere regard of strange races for their 
honored guest. If there are some Americans who 
will read it with a sneer, there are multitudes who 
will read it with quickened faith in Grant, and 
with an eye to the near future. 



HIS WELCOME HOME. 163 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

HIS WELCOME HOME. 

Japanese satire on the evanescence of fame 
says, " Great men are spoken of for seventy-five 
days." 

There have been presidents and kings who have 
"died, and made no sign." The last act of the 
burial-service is to let fall upon the coffin-lid the 
dust of earth, and often it closes over the memory 
of many who have been esteemed as great and 
wise while living. 

But there is a greatness that outlives death, and 
becomes a part of the inheritance of mankind. 

There are names which are as "familiar as a 
household word," — there are men among all races 
that cannot be forgotten, because their deeds make 
both the glory and the history of their age. In 
the United-States Senate it was said that Grant 
was gifted "with that splendid courage which 
never blanched in battle, which never quaked 
before clamor, — with that matchless self-poise 
which did not desert him even when a continent 
beyond the sea rose and uncovered before him." 
No other American, in making the circuit of the 
globe, has received honors that might vie in 



1 64 ABOUT GRANT. 

splendor with a triumphal march. The world 
makes no mistake in its voluntary recognitions. 
First and last it bestows its highest estimate on 
greatness. The recognitions of Grant were not 
due merely to the high positions he had held. 
They were paid to one who, by his acts, was 
entitled to high rank among marked men. The 
same instinctive respect which caused two con- 
tinents to lavish attention upon Grant is about 
to extend to him, when he touches again the 
shores of the Republic, such a welcome as no 
man has ever received among us. 1 The greet- 
ings of the Old World for him will scarcely 
have died away before the rejoicing of the New 
World will begin. Preparations by cities and 
States now making are but symptoms of that 
outburst of affection and esteem awaiting Grant. 
The silence of Grant while President had sub- 
jected him to unfavorable comment. It was a 
fling often made, that he was incapable of doing 
any thing but to butcher men in war. " Until 
polished, the precious stone is not brilliant." 
Until the occasion came, Grant had little to say : 
when it came, he never failed to say the right 
word at the right time. This unsuspected gift 
has made his maligners unhappy, for one main 
point of attack is gone. Nothing is left to the 
chronic contemner of Grant but the revival of 
the scandals of an unfortunate period in our 
career. But the people understand that the cry 

l Written before Grant's return. 



HIS WELCOME HOME. 165 

of "ring," as applied to him, is one of the most 
defunct of our "dead" issues. The national re- 
ception in store for Grant will include the numbers 
who understand loyalty to mean fidelity to the idea 
that " we are a nation," and not " a confederacy." 
Joining in it will be seen that vast host, united by 
the "mystic chords of memory, stretching from 
every battlefield and patriotic grave to every living 
heart and hearthstone all over the broad land." 
The swarthy race, remaining on the soil of its 
birth in despair, or fleeing to friendlier lands in 
hope, still uncertain whether the rights once 
solemnly guaranteed to it are to prove in the 
end a curse rather than a blessing, with all the 
fervor of its nature will hail the coming of 
the man, who, when he became its friend, never 
forsook or forgot the faithful ally of the assailed 
Union. All those who remember with pride the 
hard-fought contest by which the faith of the 
nation was kept, and the money of the Constitu- 
tion re-instated ; all those who see the anarchical 
and disorganizing agencies now combined against 
public honor and welfare, together with those who 
believe that the imaginary evils of a "third term" 
are slight, compared with the positive evils of one 
term of such government as would come from as- 
cension to power of those who fought the nation 
with arms, and those who fought it with votes, — 
will swell the chorus of welcome. The great body 
of patriotic people who regulate their lives in 
the spirit of prayerful responsibility to God, and 



1 66 ABOUT GRANT. 

perform political duties in obedience to consci- 
entious conviction, will unite in hearty jubilee 
over the return of Grant. There is existing at 
the present time a conviction, which is likely to 
increase in intensity, that a new peril may require 
the extricating hand of Grant. So powerful is 
this sentiment already, that it is sustained by a 
great majority of the most influential members of 
the loyal political party. In the late Republican 
convention of Iowa, when the " silent man, now 
ploughing the Chinese seas," was referred to as 
the best standard-bearer of Republican principles, 
cheer upon cheer responded to the suggestion. 1 

Among the reasons given by the business-men 
of Chicago, for the unanimity of choice for Grant 
in 1880, was a growing "distrust of the future. 
. . . The communistic outbreaks, the partial suc- 
cesses of Kearney and his friends, the threats of 
the men who are now drilling at socialistic gather- 
ings in many of the Western cities," have, it was 
said, "all conspired to urge on the movement in 
favor of Grant." 

To the present ministerial government of Eng- 
land, the Duke of Argyle said lately, — 

" My lords, you are beginning to be found out. The 
people of this country are beginning to see you have not 
obtained for them what they expected. It is not we, the 

1 During the ovation and speeches made at the gathering of the 
veterans at Albany yesterday, whenever Gen. Grant was alluded to, not- 
withstanding the presence of Gens. Hooker, Slocum, and McQuade, and 
many illustrious heroes, the immense audience " rose from their chairs, 
pounded with their canes, and waved their hats wildly." — New-York 
paper. 



HIS WELCOME HOME. 167 

members of the opposition, are accusing you. Time is your 
great* accuser. The course of events is summing up the 
case against you. What have you to say? I shall await 
to hear what you have to say, — why you should not re- 
ceive an adverse verdict at the hands of the public, as you 
will certainly be called upon to receive it at the bar of 
history." 

The people are fast finding out that one unfal- 
tering purpose animates the conspirators against 
the peace and order of the Republic. It is the 
possession of the government at all hazards, for 
which they strike. The people see this determi- 
nation revealed by the virtual extinction of the 
Republican vote of the South ; by the attempt to 
invalidate the title of the present executive through 
investigation ; in the effort to force the President 
to assent to measures forbidding the use of the 
army for constitutional duty ; and in the persist- 
ent partisan labor to destroy the last vestige of 
protection to the imperilled ballot by national 
authority. 

They see an imperious lust for power in the 
late atrocious conspiracy to withhold from gov- 
ernment the force to shield from persecution the 
black race of the South, or to guard the ballot-box 
from the base element ready to prostitute it for 
base ends. 

They believe that a Senator spoke for the people 
when he said that '•the nation has tasted and 
drank to the dregs the sway of the Democratic 
party, organized and dominated by the same in- 



1 68 ABOUT GRANT. 

fluences which dominate it again and still. You 
want to restore that domination. We mean to 
resist you at every step and by every lawful means 
that opportunity places in our hands. We believe 
that it is good for the country, good for every 
man, North and South, who loves the country 
now, that the government should remain in the 
hands of those who were never against it. We 
believe that it is not wise or safe to give over our 
nationality to the dominion of the forces which 
formerly and now again rule the Democratic party. 
We do not mean to connive at further conquests, 
and we tell you that if you gain further political 
power, you must gain it by fair means and not by 
foul." 

The loyal people of America look upon the 
solid South as the survival of the Rebellion. With 
a revulsion that words fail to express, they see 
that "local government in one portion of our 
land is no better than despotism tempered with 
assassination." The nationalization of the " solid 
South " they see will open elections in the great 
Northern cities to systematic fraud, so that suf- 
frage will be nullified by rascality. 

Therefore while the spirit of rebellion still 
lingers, and its ambition for political power is 
plainly divulged, the people welcome the return 
of one who, under the Providence of God, has 
been equal to all our late emergencies ; and, as an 
impending menace to our future confronts them, 
they rejoice — • 






HIS WELCOME HOME. 169 

" That now 
Ulysses is in his own land again, 
And sits or walks observant of the deeds 
Of wrong ; " 

ready again, if it be the will of the people, to face 
the enemy he has so often routed. 



GRANT AND THE NEXT EMERGENCY. 



"Cheer answers cheer from rise to set 
Of sun. We have a country yet. 
The praise, O Lord, be thine alone, 
That givest not for bread a stone ! 
Thou hast not led us through the night 
To blind us with returning light ; 
Not through the furnace have we passed 
To perish at its mouth at last." 

Whittier : After Election. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE PERIL OF SOLIDITY. 

This glance at Grant's relation to our national 
emergencies, and at his remarkable career since his 
return to civil life, was not written with any inten- 
tion of intermeddling in the approaching contest 
over the twentieth President. Having no desire for. 
forming or anticipating public opinion in connec- 
tion with the near election, this book has awaited 
the return of Grant to this country before con- 
cluding its review of our political condition. Its 
"excuse for being" is an endeavor to record the 
fact of an unmistakable public sentiment for Grant, 
and to give the reasons of its unexampled force 
and direction. 

The welcome extended to Grant from the 
moment he entered the Golden Gate in September, 
to this hour, has exceeded the most extravagant 
expectation in brilliance of demonstration, hearti- 
ness of enthusiasm, and outpouring of masses. 
The populace has greeted him. It is an unvarying 
story, from San Francisco to the last-visited city, 
of crowded avenues, uncounted thousands, and 
unbounded delight. The movement in favor of his 

173 



174 ABOUT GRANT. 

candidacy has assumed national proportions. It is 
a movement of the people. The party manipula- 
tors have been quiet and cold, if not averse to the 
popular " ground-swell." In most States the 
Republican unity for Grant is without precedent. 
In spots where it has been discovered by special 
illumination, that the " chief end of man," as a 
voter, is to mutilate his ticket to make it perfect ; 
the number who croak over the disasters of 1874, 
and who with parrot-like monotony harp on a few 
offensive names, is small, compared with those 
who believe, that, take him for all in all, Grant 
will best secure the peace, honor, and prosperity 
of the people. Notwithstanding frantic efforts 
made to get Grant out of the way, by making up 
a plethoric purse to content him as " the sands of 
life are running out," or wild projects to install him 
into the presidency of trans-continental canals and 
railways ; and notwithstanding the more ingen- 
ious bribe of a new military title and occupation, 
with the attractive accompaniment of a large in- 
come, and life-tenure ; notwithstanding the spleen 
of uneasy carpers, and the railing of self-appointed 
moral censors, who aspire to an apron-string au- 
thority by which they can lead at will the wayward 
multitude, — in spite of all, Grant is steadily grow- 
ing in strength, and the tidal wave setting in for 
him appears irresistible in its volume and mo- 
mentum. 

The limited character of the Republican oppo- 
sition is manifest. In an article sneering at Grant, 



THE PERIL OF SOLIDITY. 175 

a semi-Republican paper takes the position that 
"those who have the public weal most at heart" 
resist the demand for his nomination. 

Yet in the State of Massachusetts, where the 
largest showing inimical to Grant might be looked 
for, in a convention called to celebrate the twenty- 
fifth anniversary of the Republican party, where 
its veterans were gathered, and delegates from all 
parts of the Commonwealth were assembled, no 
name mentioned to that significant body of citi- 
zens was received with such decided satisfaction, 
or with such unusual or prolonged and spontaneous 
applause, as the name of Grant. It is the evi- 
dence of speakers in the late campaign in Mas- 
sachusetts, that any reference to Grant would 
waken in all audiences unwonted ardor. If only 
those among Republicans who object to Grant 
have the public weal at heart, it is time to begin 
fasting and prayer over the much-neglected pub- 
lic welfare. The lamentable failure by the recon- 
structed section, to respond favorably to honest 
and earnest efforts of President Hayes, to estab- 
lish good understanding and amicable relations 
between heretofore contending communities, is the 
secret of the Grant revival. The present adminis- 
tration began with a revolution in Republican con- 
duct bearing on Southern affairs. It stretched out 
an olive-branch in each hand. Federal restraint 
was taken from, and the policy of coercion aban- 
doned in, the disaffected States. Paeans were sung 
as the Federal soldier retreated, and the hated 



176 ABOUT GRANT. 

carpet-bagger passed into political oblivion. While 
the President and Cabinet with considerable flour- 
ish made a tour of fraternal interchange through- 
out a portion of the South, in order to give the 
new plan of peace full chance of success, the 
North, while these embraces and other overtures 
of friendship were transacted, withheld all com- 
ment, criticism, and censure of the performance. 
The interregnum of reconciliation was short-lived. 
The first important election after the voyage of 
amity revealed the hollowness of Southern profes- 
sions of good faith. The predetermined policy of 
annihilating Republican majorities was quick and 
complete in its enforcement. The instrumentali- 
ties used to accomplish this end were frauds, 
brutalities, and massacres. The Mephistophelean 
advisers of the Republican party say to it, " You 
cannot go into the presidential canvass, or even 
go to the convention, and draw up a platform of 
stalwart principles with nothing but two old, and 
indeed, we might say, second-hand murders." 
This breezy and heartless manner of dealing with 
Southern outrages has a tendency to shock, rather 
than seduce, the patriotic voter. Fifteen years 
have gone by since the war, and the peace account 
closes with an array of monstrous facts, the dam- 
aging nature of which can be no more refuted than 
the morality of the Ten Commandments, or the 
facts of the multiplication-table. When the sick 
fox in the fable despaired of his health, he advised 
the rest of his race to improve their mode of life, 



THE PERIL OF SOLIDITY. 177 

by ceasing to plunder, and to begin making a more 
reputable character for foxes. One of the band 
who listened remarked that the counsel was good, 
but it was given too late ; the hereditary taste for 
mutton and fowl was too strong, and it was impos- 
sible to effect a radical change of heart or nature. 
Just then the clucking of a hen was heard : it 
roused the instincts of the dying fox, and he said, 

" If you must, you must. 
Go, but be moderate in your food : 
A chicken, too, might do me good." 

So the Southern instinct was found to be inde- 
structible. A little negro bull-dozing always seems 
to do it good. Mississippi regained her standing 
as a Democratic State, because Republicans fell 
back from the range of the deadly rifle, and the 
muzzle of the menacing shot-gun. The abolition 
of the true majority enabled a Democrat to enter 
the United-States Senate. 

A Mississippian who had contributed largely 
towards Democratic restoration, by fidelity to the 
"plan," was most signally rewarded for his "gal- 
lant" services, and the chief person in the cere- 
mony of appreciation was their Democratic Sena- 
tor. The distinguished recipient, having altered 
his politics, was subsequently murdered at high 
noon by a local ruffian. No word of reproach for 
the act has yet come from the Senator who once 
honored the victim of assassination. The silence 
of Lamar is the tribute the ablest men of Missis- 



178 ABOUT GRANT. 

sippi must pay to the outlaws who rule their poli- 
tics. The defence for this shameful silence is, 
that Southern statesmen will not condemn lawless- 
ness while the North meddles with the matter. 
The sealed lips and bated breath of the North is 
the price asked for an indulgence of Southern 
indignation for killing at sight a man on the other 
side in politics. 

The plea for "home rule," that it is better for 
all, that the white minority by force should reduce 
the black majority, is a blow at self-government. 

In other days, when any one dissented from the 
horrors of slavery he was met with the inane query, 
"But you don't want your daughter to marry a 
nigger, do you ? " Now, if protest is made against 
murder as a means of acquiring Democratic major- 
ities in Republican localities, the equally imbecile 
question is put, "Do you want to Africanize the 
South ? " 

The inventory of wrongs inflicted upon the 
weaker race of the South, and upon the people 
of the United States, by unfair federal representa- 
tion in the national councils, and the tragic ending 
of the vaunted era of reconciliation, makes, since 
the days of "home rule," an appalling record of 
arrogance and infamy. If we can believe Jeffer- 
son Davis, he has never seen "a reconstructed 
Southern woman." And he looks to such women 
"to raise up children to vindicate" the Rebellion. 
"Harper's Weekly," in an article on Southern 
School-Books, speaks in this way of a certain 



THE PERIL OF SOLIDITY. 179 

book : " Instead of aiming to make the youth, for 
whom it is prepared, honorable and patriotic 
American citizens, it seeks to make them 'South- 
erners.' Visit a Southern school to-day, and the 
embryo orators will be heard rehearsing in the 
following words the praise of ' The Confederate 
Dead:' 'They represented the principles of self- 
government, of local freedom, and of the right of 
a people to decide their own political associations. 
In them were struck down those ancient and hon- 
orable ideas.' " 

Said the President of the Confederacy for which 
these men died in vain, " Our new government has 
its foundation ; its corner-stone rests upon this 
great truth, that the negro is not equal to the 
white man ; that slavery, subordination to the su- 
perior race, is his natural and normal condition." 
The object of Southern education is to pervert 
history, by embalming in the affection of the rising 
generation of that region, the Confederate dead, as 
the martyrs of liberty. The son of a former Presi- 
dent of the United States, a Confederate officer 
in high command, prior to his death, speaking of 
George Mason of Virginia, said, " He stood for a 
union of consent and love : he has seen one of 
force and hate. He urged independent States to 
create a common servant, the Federal Government 
as a useful agent. He has seen the creature they 
called into being rend, like Frankenstein, its crea- 
tors." Half the life of a generation has fled, since 
the blood of the dead and the bravery of the living 



180 ABOUT GRANT. 

Union soldier vindicated the idea that our fathers 
reared a nation among men ; yet, in face of the 
sacrifice and toil of a hundred years of American 
history, to infuse into the children of one-third of 
the Republic the poison of State superiority, is a 
part of the common daily task of the true Southern 
teacher. Henry Watterson holds that the South 
might justly say to the radical leaders, " You 
alone, among Americans, have caused the cheeks 
of honest Americans to blush for their country in 
every part of the world." The unapproachable 
"cheek" of the statement defies comment. Hill 
of Georgia asserts that "the mission of the Re- 
publican party was to destroy this government." 

The statement has been made in Congress, and 
never successfully contradicted, that four hundred 
thousand votes have disappeared from the South, 
and that thirty-two seats in Congress are fraudu- 
lently occupied because of the forced destruction 
of the natural majorities in terrorized districts. 
The Southern neglect to provide education for the 
negro population is thus referred to by a late cor- 
respondent of "The Boston Herald : " — 

" I had occasion, in a recent letter on the school system 
of Virginia, to remark the indifference of the Southerners in 
this matter of popular public education, which is such an 
important feature of Northern civilization. If any thing 
goes wrong with the appropriations, or a special sum is 
badly needed, or some public improvement is proposed, the 
first effort they make to raise the money is by cutting down 
the school fund." 

Nine Southern States have openly repudiated 



THE PERIL OF SOLIDITY. 181 

their debts, or have defaulted in payment, and 
propose to adjust their liabilities. In eleven 
Southern States the postal service falls behind 
more than two millions of dollars. Worse than 
all, local misgovernment, persecutions, intimida- 
tions, tissue-ballot stuffings, shotguns at the polls, 
and other characteristics of the " home " policy of 
the South, have depopulated the Gulf States of a 
fearful percentage of their labor, — that labor by 
which their community is sustained, and by which 
alone it merits any consideration or regard from- 
mankind. The community that distresses or dis- 
heartens its labor shows an incapacity for local, 
much more for general, government. 

The failure to properly furnish education for the 
black man has been the most powerful stimulus 
to his migration. He is bound to go where there 
is the least resistance to his race, and where his 
child is sure to be taught. The exodus is an 
invincible argument against the ability and will 
of the Southern people to rule with justice, or 
govern with discretion. Yet, according to Senator 
Bayard, the " South does not need legislation : the 
South needs sympathy and respect." Respect 
and sympathy for what? Even those journals 
that have strenuously advocated the policy that 
the South should have its own way, now inform 
us that in Louisiana "the machinery of elections, 
as created by the party now in power, is in no 
respect an improvement on the "old machinery 
devised by the carpet-bagger." For years there 



182 ABOUT GRANT. 

has been no Federal interference to inflame the 
South. No provocation has goaded it to its sur- 
prising conduct. The South is solid in its dislike 
of the Republican party of the nation, solid in 
its determination to banish the existence of that 
party within its province, by hereditary inclina- 
tion. In the degree that it has gained in power, 
the South has increased its haughtiness and inhu- 
manity. " The man who has one hand in your 
pocket strikes the other in your face ; the man 
who has both hands in your pocket spits in your 
face." When the South had only the House of 
Representatives under its control, it confined its 
exercise to shotgun practice on election day. 
When it came into possession of the Senate 
through a Democratic majority, it boldly proposed 
to " starve the government " into submission. 
Montaigne says, " Whatever be the cost of this 
noble liberty, we must be content to pay it to 
Heaven." 

We are forced to choose, as American citizens, 
between conflicting ideas, institutions, civiliza- 
tions. We cannot admit that the grade of our 
free civilization is a debatable question. We know 
its advantages as we know that the tides move, or 
the sun shines. The census avows it. Popula- 
tion attests the fact. Libraries garnered at great 
cost and care, numerous structures devoted to 
learning, rapidly increasing wealth, every fea- 
ture that testifies to a prosperous and intelligent 
social order, use of books, improved methods of 



THE PERIL OF SOLIDITY. 183 

living, extended circulation of the daily press, and 
the added number of Christian churches, Chris- 
tian seminaries, and Christian charities, — all dem- 
onstrate the superiority of Northern civilization. 
Its spread is the hope and glory of the future. 
To doubt or to disguise its superiority, is to be 
false to truth and patriotism. The peril before us 
is the possibility that this better and purer civili- 
zation, based as it is on equality of human rights 
and the supreme duty of universal justice, may go 
down in the next election before a weak and isfno- 
ble civilization, founded upon the boasted claims of 
a privileged class, and having little identity with 
the progress that has gained for the Republic the 
respect of the world, and no friendly participa- 
tion with the victories that have made the nation 
immortal in its valor and renown. 



1 84 ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE BATTLE AND THE BATTLE-GROUND. 

The sanctity of American citizenship, and its 
protection on our soil with the same vigilance and 
assertion that shields and sustains it abroad, are 
not the questions now to be decided. 

The imperative duty of national education, that 
popular action shall accord with an enlightened 
will, is a matter of the future. 

The next battle is to determine whether the 
constitutional legislation, the personal rights, and 
the common obligations adjudicated by the war 
settlements, are to have local governments, or the 
nation, as their final tribunal. The battle of to- 
day is over the foundation principle that the vote 
of the country, in order to insure fairness of 
casting and accuracy in counting, demands national 
supervision in elections pertaining to national in- 
terests, and cannot safely be left to the varying 
and negligent oversight of the several States. 
Whatever doubt may exist with regard to other 
questions, it cannot be denied that the Constitu- 
tion is meaningless jargon, unless a voter in Mas- 
sachusetts shall be certain that his represented 
power in the electoral college and in all national 



THE BATTLE AND THE BATTLE-GROUND. 185 

bodies is not abridged or overthrown by imperfect 
balloting in Mississippi or New York. The con- 
flict before us is to pass upon the essence of the 
national contract, and the validity of the title of 
national government. While it would be unwise 
needlessly to offend the worthy portion of our 
countrymen who rally under the banner of "in- 
dependence," it is not the time to follow doctri- 
naires, to forget experience, or fret at the inevita- 
ble. The fact is irrefutable, thiat our political 
conduct, active or passive, will assist either the 
party ranging with the "solid North," or the 
party ranging with the "solid South." They are 
blind leaders of the blind, whether they stand 
in pulpits or write at editorial desks, who teach 
that there is no choice of parties, and that it is 
of little moment which wins. By an eternal law 
parties differ, and by the same law they differ for 
good or ill. The heresy of political indifference, 
so flippantly paraded by chipper critics, strikes 
at that inherent and fundamental morality upon 
which alone the social and political structure can 
be wisely reared. 

We may reconnoitre about or skirmish over 
revenues, reform, finance, and civil administra- 
tion ; but the main battle is not to be fought on 
less ground than a test of civilizations, and the 
best title to the possession of government. We 
should not now waste our energies on fanciful or 
frivolous issues. Even important affairs must be 
postponed. However momentous may be the 



1 86 ABOUT GRANT. 

controversy over civil-service reform, it cannot be 
made the "gage of battle." Its advocates may 
have sufficient power to make a diversion that 
will jeopardize the cause of good government, 
and fatally injure the cause of civil-service ad- 
vancement ; but they have not now, nor can they 
have, the force to push their specialty to the front. 

Experience is throwing light upon both the 
difficulties and the proper modifications of this 
grave question. As President Hayes, who at the 
start was furiously applauded by civil-service re- 
formers, has since felt the slings and arrows of 
outrageous squibbing from his former admirers ; 
it may happen that Grant, whose patriotism is 
undoubted in public affairs, from being the dread- 
ed Apollyon in the path of civil-service reform, 
may prove the redeeming agency to place this 
reform on a sound and practical basis. Rising 
above the consideration of merely subordinate 
measures, the people have a clear perception of 
duty as to the state of the battle and the field 
where it is to be contested. 

The battle-ground is the pivotal State of New 
York. 

There are a certain number of assured votes 
"solid" on either side. It is the thirty-five elec- 
toral votes of that State, required to make the 
majority of the electoral college, that cause New 
York to be the scene of interest and struggle. 
The situation is intricate. 

Ordinarily, parties there are so nearly balanced, 



THE BATTLE AND THE BATTLE-GROUND. 187 

that certainty of calculation is an impossibility. 
There are in the State from thirty to forty thou- 
sand converts to the gospel of " split tickets." 
The signs that help " Old Probabilities " to fore- 
cast the weather are luminous beside the political 
indications of the Empire State. 

To wilfully risk the result of the strife, by bad 
leadership or thoughtless management of the fight, 
would be a political blunder which is crime against 
mankind. The rule of action demanded by con- 
science and intelligence is to secure strength of 
position and command. The decision of the bat- 
tle is to foreshadow the policy of the country for 
years. If the "solid South" breaks, it is the end 
of warfare over opposing forms of civilization that 
have existed in some phase since the origin of the 
nation. If the North breaks, we must enter upon 
an epoch of confusion and disorder in all internal 
affairs, uncertainty as to the bonded debt, cur- 
rency, and the tariff; and such insecurity con- 
cerning the franchise as would threaten anarchy. 
The magnitude of the issue should force us to 
remember that the contest of a century between 
State rights and a supreme national government 
constitutionally endowed, has not changed in its 
nature, but simply in the method of its campaign. 
We should not forget that the loss of national 
control by those now holding it, would place re- 
sponsibility upon a party having for twenty years 
no history but that of dishonor, no creed but 
that of negation and fault-finding. The sane 



1 88 ABOUT GRANT. 

voter is compelled to the conclusion, that a peo- 
ple who seem unable to properly develop a prov- 
ince should not be empowered to minister to the 
needs of an empire. The conscientious voter, 
after careful examination of the field, sees no 
prospect of perfection in civil service, from acces- 
sion to political power by a party whose greed 
for spoils has been heightened by long abstinence 
from the pleasures of patronage. He sees no 
hope of peace in the success that ruptures twenty 
years of national memories. He sees no chance 
of purity in the triumph of a political organiza- 
tion that vanquishes its opponents in States by 
preventing them from voting, and obtains its 
majorities in cities by falsifying returns. He 
apprehends no progress from a political fraternity 
with twenty per cent of its members religiously 
educated to fear public education. 1 He expects 
no development of patriotism from the domina- 
tion of a party, of which forty per cent have 
been in armed resistance to the Republic. The 
wise voter regards this as an unfit moment for 

l "In this connection the Archbishop (Williams) reads from the in- 
structions sent to the bishops of the United States through the Roman 
propaganda in a document dated Nov. 24, 1875, and printed in some 
papers in this country soon after its reception. From this document, now 
before us in the original, we gather that the system of instruction peculiar 
to secular schools appears even in itself to be full of peril. The document 
proceeds to attribute this peril to the severing of secular from religious 
instruction, the exclusion of the authority of the church from the schools ; 
the opportunity frequently given to teachers holding sectarian opinions to 
infuse error into the minds of the young, so plastic and receptive in the 
tender age of school days, and, in some cases, the co-education of the 
sexes." — Boston Daily Advertiser. 



THE BATTLE AND THE BATTLE-GROUND. 189 

trifling. Whoever treats politics lightly or as 
a farce should be impressed by the records of 
humanity that the farces of politics and bad gov- 
ernment have preceded all the bloody tragedies 
that have cursed the world. 

The thoughtful American citizen reads from 
Mir'abeau that " Liberty is pledged to liberty ; 
they are indissolubly allied in the great cause ; it 
is an alliance between God and nature, immutable, 
eternal ; " and he seeks in this country the party 
of liberty as the party of power and promise. He 
reads from Chatham, " I have an ambition : it is 
the ambition of delivering to my posterity those 
rights of freedom which I have inherited from my 
ancestors ; " and a like ambition fills the American 
heart. He reads from Erskine, " My only wish is 
to see a happy, powerful, disentangled union, that 
may save from destruction the constitution ; " and 
he is impelled to ally himself with those whose con- 
secrated purpose has been the preservation in this 
land of the Constitution and the Union. He reads 
what Franklin said of the fathers : "As long as the 
government is mild and just, as long as there is 
security for civil and religious interests, the Amer- 
icans will be respectful and submissive subjects ; " 
and he holds that justice to all, civil and religious 
privileges to all, will make for the sons a contented 
citizenship. He reads from Bancroft, " that in 
the cabin of ' The Mayflower ' humanity received 
its rights, and established government on the basis 
of ' equal laws ' enacted by all the people for the 



190 ABOUT GRANT. 

' general good ; ' " and believing that the " general 
good " with us can only be upheld, that " equal 
laws" here can only be established, that the "rights 
of humanity " in this nation can only be secured, 
by a constitutional government with adequate force 
to protect the citizen everywhere in his rights, 
and guard his ballot everywhere in its purity, he 
is for that party of the nation that shall wield the 
power of the nation for the largest personal liber- 
ty and the most impartial justice. He looks back- 
ward, and sees that the imperial Commonwealth 
of New York, with four million souls within it, was 
robbed in 1868 of the will of the people by the 
will of political miscreants cheating at the polls. 
Later he has seen a race numbering five million 
souls virtually disfranchised by terrorizing at the 
polls ; and he prefers to trust the whole people of 
the country, rather than the people of any part of 
it, with the vital duty of " counting by the head." 
Therefore he cherishes the warning and advice con- 
tained in the eloquent words of Senator Blaine : — 

" Organized wrong will ultimately be met by organized 
resistance. The sensitive and dangerous point is in the 
casting and the counting of free ballots. Impartial suffrage 
is our theory. It must become our practice. Any party 
of American citizens can bear to be defeated. No party of 
American citizens will bear to be defrauded. The men who 
are interested in a dishonest count are units. The men 
who are interested in an honest count are millions. I wish 
to speak for the millions of all political parties, and in their 
name to declare that the Republic must be strong enough, 
and shall be strong enough, to protect the weakest of its 



THE BATTLE AXD THE BATTLE-GROUND. 191 

citizens in all their rights. To this simple and sublime prin- 
ciple let us, in the lofty language of Burke, 'attest the retir- 
ing generations, let us attest the advancing generations, 
between which, as a link in the great chain of eternal order, 
we stand ! ' " 



192 



ABOUT GRANT. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE NATIONAL NEED, "A STRONG MAN." 

The sections are arrayed in antagonism. Mere 
complaint of the fact does not, and will not, evade 
the weighty peril which confronts us. 

The issue of 1880 is, whether the government 
as administered from March 4, 1881, is to be 
strengthened by an unquestioned title to power, 
is to represent our best civilization, is to be con- 
ducted by the most efficient executive. 

To do this, we need an honest ballot, substan- 
tial peace, and a " strong man." 

These make up our pressing national wants. 

The minimum of risk should be taken to meet 
the coming exigency. States uncertain in their 
political action are to decide the immediate nation- 
al destiny. The strongest leader is needed to at- 
tract the doubtful vote. The problem of candidacy 
is, to hold the largest number of one party, and to 
impress favorably the largest number of the other 
party. A man of known strength of character, 
patriotic record, firmness in administrative capa- 
city, who will be certain to draw more from the 
Democrats than he is likely to lose from Republi- 
cans, is the standard-bearer that loyalty should, and 



THE NATIONAL NEED — "A STRONG MAN" 193 

in all probability will, select. Grant is the candi- 
date combining the most strength with the least 
weakness. There are men of influence and edu- 
cation who do not want Grant again. He is not 
desired by those who see danger in a "third term," 
and apprehend evil from the personal element in 
politics. The class that is striving to crystallize a 
sentiment of disrespect to parties as such, aims to 
develop a body of voters, who, by the process of 
shifting sides, may so trim the ship of state, as 
to keep it safe. The danger from these political 
Quixotes is, that in some perilous moment, from 
sheer prejudice, they may so shift as to wreck the 
craft. There would be flaws found in any nomi- 
nee. Though one possessed the purity of Galahad 
and the bravery of Launcelot, he would have quib- 
blers and defamers. A man so weak or insignifi- 
cant as to be below criticism would be too weak 
for consideration as a candidate. Strength of per- 
sonal character, strength of popular support, and 
the fewest objections, make the strong leader. 

Weak points in the candidature of Grant are so 
few that their repetition is as tiresome as their 
substance is trivial. It is said that Grant was 
President during the Republican overturn of 1874. 
It is true. Business re-action, and its consequent 
depression, swept aside, as like disasters have 
swept and will sweep aside, the party in power. 

As well might Grant be charged with causing 
the earthquake at Lisbon, or with effecting the 
periodical visitation of the Asiatic cholera, as 



194 ABOUT GRANT. 

with being the author of that railroad collapse 
which led to the panic of 1873, and the com- 
mercial and political prostration that followed it. 

It is said that Grant appointed to the cabinet, 
and other important positions, men who proved 
corrupt. It is so. Washington trusted Arnold ; 
and the treachery at West Point could as con- 
sistently be laid to the first President as the 
betrayal later, by civil traitors, should be at- 
tributed to the eighteenth President. Men who 
see nothing in the career of Grant but the im- 
perfections of his official term, and the miscon- 
duct of those in whom he unwisely placed con- 
fidence, have for him an incurable aversion. 
Equally beyond the reach of argument are those 
who seek perfection in any presidential choice. 
The flawless candidate is a creature of Utopia. 
It is an impossibility to have any man selected who 
would satisfy the test of those who fancy the best 
way to show an interest in higher politics is to 
"vote in air," — a process which amounts to 
hurting the party which, on the whole, is best, 
and helping the party conceded by reformers to 
be the worst. No one has any chance to be 
put in nomination by the Republican convention 
who was not a member of that '■ senatorial group," 
which, after Grant, was the recipient of the bit- 
terest comment by the free-lance element in 
politics. It should be kept constantly in sight, 
that, outside of the objection to three terms, no 
condemnation or reproach is urged against Grant 



THE NATIONAL NEED — "A STRONG MAN." 195 

but would exist and would be mooted against any 
Republican leader that we can have. If fear of the 
" Independent" forces the overthrow of Grant's 
nomination, the successful man, by his party alli- 
ance and party devotion, will furnish opportunity 
to those who have an itching for scratching, to 
exercise that propensity. If we are to have a 
candidate whose party fealty is to be used against 
him, to take the one strongest in all other qualifi- 
cations is to be governed by plain common sense. 
It is not with any faith in the power of a mere 
nomination, or any dependence upon the hollow 
pretence of " regularity," that Grant is advocated. 
It is because, in an emergency of no common 
order, all things considered, he is the " strongest " 
man. If those who, according to Whitelaw Reid, 
vindicate " independence only by sitting on the 
fence, and throwing stones, with impartial vigor, 
alike on friend and foe," can defeat Grant, they 
can defeat others. Like the dog in " Tynley Hall," 
" who never barked at any one but the members 
of his own family," their opposition, under any 
circumstances, is expected. Neither should we 
be misled by those who are excessively anxious 
that Grant's reputation, now so enviable, might be 
impaired if he were once more President. This 
is the plea of men who heretofore have been prin- 
cipally engaged in marring that reputation, and 
assailing the honor of Grant. From idle chatter 
about the resuscitation of " rings," the restoration 
of "bosses," and the re-appointment of obnoxious 



196 ABOUT GRANT. 

men, the believers in Grant turn to his own em- 
phatic declaration, that "past experience may guide 
in avoiding mistakes inevitable with novices in all 
professions and in all occupations." 

"The Nation," in denying that any danger 
would come to the country by the preponderance 
of Southern " brigadier-generals " in Congress, 
says, " When you see a man walking into a big 
hole, into which he once fell and broke his thigh, 
you must not conclude his design is to fall in again 
and break the other hip." If the logic is sound 
in the case of a Confederate " brigadier," that 
experience teaches caution, it is as good for a 
Union general. 

The insinuation that to go back to Grant is a 
confession that no other Republican is of sufficient 
eminence to fill the Presidency, is answered by the 
statement, that, while many Republicans would 
make good Presidents, no citizen is likely to make 
a better President than Grant, and no one can so 
easily or surely obtain the required number of 
votes. We have hosts of good men, but no such 
man as Grant. The question will not be, whether 
the American people will drift into a "monarchy," 
or become an " empire," or succumb to a dic- 
tator ; but it will be whether they prefer Grant 
as President again, or the Democratic candidate 
who runs, or makes an effort to run, against him. 
Among the blessings to be anticipated by another 
term of Grant, putting a quietus on the stock 
alarm, that the life of the Republic will expire 



THE NATIONAL NEED — "A STRONG MAN" 197 

on account of a third choice of the people for 
the same man as chief magistrate, is one that 
will be both lasting and incalculable. If the lon- 
gevity of popular governments hangs on such 
slight events as a third term or no, the sooner 
the delusion of free institutions is exposed and 
exploded, the better for the world. 

They who are made unhappy by the phantom 
of an " Atlantic Caesar" tell us, in mournful 
numbers, that the "man on horseback," in the 
United States, "will set up, by intrigue and vio- 
lence, a rule which will have absolutely nothing in 
common with the government organized by our 
fathers, which will be vulgar through and through, 
steeped in corruption, political and social." That 
remarkable political "melancholia," which visits 
its victims with a passion for nursing the decrepit 
"government of the fathers," is generally attended 
with a gloomy nightmare, in which the mounted 
Caesar tramples unchecked over the ruins of the 
Republic. 

Let us observe some of the traits of the man 
at times called the American Caesar. He has 
been for three years under the gaze of the people 
of the Old and New Worlds. We find him at the 
grammar-school at Stratford, where Shakspeare 
was taught, asking "a holiday for the boys ; " and 
this Caesar of ours is greeted with "three times 
three cheers." He says to the working-men of 
Birmingham, "Labor disgraces no man." Before 
an arbitration-union, this imperialist, speaking of 



198 ABOUT GRANT. 

universal peace, says, " I would gladly see the 
millions of men, who are now supported by the 
industry of nations, return to industrial pursuits." 
Listen to this Caesar as he tells Englishmen, that, 
in America, we do "not quite believe that it is 
possible for any one man there to assume any 
more right and authority than the Constitution of 
the land gives to him." See him in Paris, visiting 
the American newspaper-office ; slipping " in of a 
morning to seek a quiet corner, and brood over 
the papers for an hour or two." See him pro- 
viding "an assortment of coins" to scatter to the 
Italian beggars that haunt his carriage. See him 
refusing, at Pompeii, to visit "scenes of shame 
and vice," which, according to the guide, was the 
"special object of interest to tourists." 

Hear one who journeyed with him in the most 
intimate manner assert that he had "no resent- 
ments," and that "I have heard him refer to most 
of the men, civil and military, who have flourished 
with him, and there is only one about whom I have 
seen him show feeling." In Egypt Grant meets 
an ex-Confederate general, an early friend, but 
"his enemy during the war," and extends to him 
a cordial recognition. 

Lounging on the deck of the Nile-boat, lazily 
sailing towards the scenes of a civilization that has 
become a dream, the narrator of the trip says 
"that the red-letter days of our Nile journey were 
when Gen. Grant told us how he met Lee at Ap- 
pomattox, or how Sherman fought at Shiloh." An 



THE NATIONAL NEED — "A STRONG MAN." 199 

Egyptian official presents Grant with an Arabian 
steed ; and it is suggested that perhaps it would 
be safer to " pace the horse up and down, with an 
attendant to hold him." The answer is, " If I can 
mount a horse, I can ride him ; and all the attend- 
ants can do is to keep away." This is the sole 
Caesarean view of the "man on horseback" given 
us in his foreign tour. At Memphis, "some one 
proposes, laughingly, that the general, who is on 
his way to Turkey, should offer the Sultan his 
services." — "No," he said, "I have done all the 
fighting I care to do ; and the only country I shall 
fight for is the United States." How like a 
Caesar ! At Madrid, he will not see a bull-fight. 
At Berlin, we are told that a "grand review is on 
the tapis, which Gen. Grant is to witness. I don't 
think he can possibly escape this time, as much as 
he is disinclined to witness military pageants." 

In an interview with Bismarck, our Caesar re- 
marks, " The truth is, I am more of a farmer than 
a soldier. I take little or no interest in military 
affairs ; and although I entered the army thirty- 
five years ago, and have been in two wars, — in 
Mexico as a young lieutenant,' and later, — I never 
went into the army without regret, and never re- 
tired without pleasure." At a dinner given on 
the Fourth of July at Hamburg, Grant's health 
was proposed as the "man who had saved the 
country." In response, among other things, he 
said, " What saved the Union was the coming for- 
ward of the young men of the nation. They came 



200 ABOUT GRANT. 

from their homes and fields, as they did in the time 
of the Revolution, giving every thing to the coun- 
try. To their devotion we owe the salvation of 
the Union. The humblest soldier who carried a 
musket is entitled to as much credit for the re- 
sults of the war as those who were in command. 
So long as our young men are animated by this 
spirit, there will be no fear for the Union." 

And when the tide of welcome had rolled in 
from the Pacific slope to the borders of the Great 
Lakes, and a vast multitude hung breathlessly upon 
the words that came from their fellow-citizen, he 
said, — 

" To one allusion to my reception abroad I will say, that, 
in every case, I felt that it was a tribute to our own country. 
I will add further, that our country stands differently abroad, 
in the estimation of European and Eastern nations, from 
what it did a quarter of a century ago. At that time it 
was believed we had no nation ; it was merely a confedera- 
tion of states, tied together by a rope of sand, and would 
give way upon the slightest friction. They have found it 
was a grand mistake. They know that we have now a na- 
tion; that we are a nation of strong and intelligent and 
brave people, capable of judging and knowing- our rights, 
and determined on all occasions to maintain them against 
either a domestic or foreign foe; and that is the reception 
you, as a nation, have received through me while I was 
abroad." 

These instances of a grand, simple, patriotic 
nature could be multiplied. They would only 
tend to strengthen the feeling shared by all our 
countrymen, except those who are dulled by preju- 



THE NATIONAL NEED — "A STRONG MAN." 20 1 

dice or imbittered by bigotry, that the ambition 
which attaches to the name of Caesar would apply 
with equal fitness to Washington or Lincoln as to 
Grant. 

The group of events included in these pages 
were critical occasions, turning-points, in Ameri- 
can history. They were so interwoven with the 
life of the Republic, that the failure of any one of 
them would have brought utmost disaster, if not 
defeat, to the national cause. In each emergency, 
when the tide of misfortune had touched the point 
of despair, when the blow that cleft in twain the 
domain of the foe settled forever neutrality and 
emancipation, when the scattered armies of the 
enemy were driven in upon their centre, when the 
dream of a Confederacy dissolved " like the base- 
less fabric of a vision," when the heroic chief of 
the "lost cause" calmly met his fate, — in all 
these supreme moments, one commanding figure 
is the centre of each decisive scene. And when 
the roar of war was hushed, to be supplanted by 
the roar of contending factions, when the halls 
of the nation became the field of combat, as loyalty 
battled defection in its own ranks, the same clear 
head, calm mind, and steady hand guided us in 
the " pinch " of reconstruction. The standard of 
bad faith and repudiation is raised at an hour when 
all the burdens of war and none of the advantages 
of peace are felt ; and he is chosen to lead against 
the hosts of dishonor those to whom the fame of 
the Republic was no less dear than its life. 



202 ABOUT GRANT. 

Once more : while he occupies for the second 
time the Presidential office, an alarming conspiracy 
against constitutional money and honest finance 
is begun. 

The fight for morals and conscience and good 
money rages at last about him. His signature as 
President makes into law the policy which saved 
the character and honor of the nation as its rights 
and liberties had already been preserved. 

As we, the countrymen of Grant, have seen, 
with equal emotions of wonder and admiration, 
the great divisions of the earth — Europe with her 
peoples, statesmen, warriors, and rulers, India 
with her palaces of marble and massive temples 
adorned with chaste minarets and lofty domes, 
China with antiquities that reveal the misty legends 
of an unknown age, Egypt with her mysterious 
tombs and temples, Japan, old in her civilization, 
young in her hope of adopting methods of modern 
life — all bestowing for the first time upon an 
American, honors reserved by the custom of coun- 
tries for emperors, kings, and princes ; and as 
beyond all this mere variety of ceremony we have 
seen extended to our countryman a personal atten- 
tion and regard coming from the very heart of 
many races, we have been amazed and gratified 
at a recognition such as the civilities of nations 
have rarely lavished upon a guest. 

Reaching the western shores of his native land, 
his countrymen have shown an estimation for his 
renown, and an admiration for his character, no 



THE NATIONAL NEED — "A STRONG MAN." 203 

less general or intense than that which attended 
him in strange lands. 

To some of his fellow-citizens, more than any 
glory won at arms, higher than any distinction in 
civil affairs, dearer than ovations to his greatness, 
purer and fairer than any laurel he wears, ranks 
that tribute he has made to morality, that contri- 
bution to the dignity of sober self-command. The 
hearts of Christian men and women go out to him 
for his adherence to the truth that social delight 
and customs and personal gratification are nothing 
compared with the grandeur of an example which 
helps to lift the race to a standard of self-denial 
and sobriety. 

Tried as no other American has been, tested in 
the fire and heat by which the calibre of true men 
is determined, in a new danger that threatens *the 
fruits of a war which reeked with blood, and the 
gains of a peace terrible in its lessons, and the veri- 
fication of the title of a government we are either 
to administer or obey, — when all that we hold 
priceless hangs trembling in the balance, human 
nature would require re-creation, if it did not, in 
the emergency before us, look to the citizen who 
had so often been the providential agent of our 
deliverance from peril in the past. 

The underlying motive or instinct of that 
mighty impulse that turns to him again is the 
conviction, that, surer than by any other method, 
another term of administration by Grant will 
disperse the solidity of sections, bury the feuds 



204 ABOUT GRANT. 

and animosities of years, and bring about, on the 
basis of equality for all, a final settlement of the 
costly and unhappy division of the people. 

In the presence of a political contest freighted 
with issues bearing on the welfare of millions, 
and the concern of a nation, it seems puerile to 
question and dishonorable to deny the imperative 
demand for a "strong man." Of Grant it can 
be said, as Guizot said of Washington, " He had 
in a superior degree the two qualities which in 
active life render men capable of great things : 
he could believe firmly in- his own ideas, and act 
resolutely upon them, without fearing to take the 
responsibility." Strong in the possession of at- 
tributes that made Washington great, Grant of 
living leaders is the strongest and safest, — strong 
in the memories of a grateful people for his skill 
and prowess as a soldier; strong in that histori- 
cal position which places him in the front of the 
foremost men of his day ; strong in that eminent 
virtue of decision and judgment which enables 
him to grapple successfully with the most com- 
plicated difficulties ; strong in that patriotic in- 
stinct which makes right action the sole means 
to the "general good ; " strong in the possibilities 
of peace, which he more than any man will be 
able to secure for the whole land ; and, above all, 
strong in those moral convictions, buttressed on 
religious belief, that teach that the love, the lib- 
erty, the justice, revealed to man as a divine 
standard of conduct, when incorporated into 



THE NATIONAL NEED— "A STRONG MAN." 205 

American laws, and reflected in daily American 
life, will attain for us that "pursuit of happiness" 
which was one of the fundamental promises of the 
American Constitution, and will yet be the pos- 
session of an approaching American civilization. 
May we not, under the guidance of this " strong 
man," realize for the Republic the glowing vision 
imagined by Milton ? — 

" Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation, 
rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking 
her invincible locks. 

" Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty 
youth, and kindling her undazzled eye at the full midday 
beam ; purging and unsealing her long-abused sight at the 
fountain itself of heavenly radiance ; while the whole noise 
of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the 
twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means." 

The meaning of the American Republic is to 
live up to its own ideal. Her citizens, whether 
they number fifty or thrice fifty millions, whether 
they be black men from Africa, yellow men from 
China, red men of the forests, or men of whiter 
hue, must enjoy entire recognition of those rights, 
and that exact and equal balance of political will, 
given them by the laws of God, and re-enacted 
for their benefit by the laws of the land. The 
American nation has no meaning, unless, in the 
spirit with which our ancestors sang, " A church 
without a bishop, a state without a king," we cause 
all class-distinction and every remnant of caste 
to recede and vanish before our advancing civili- 



206 ABOUT GRANT. 

zation. It is no blind worship of brute force as 
such, no unmanly idolatry for a military con- 
queror, which inspires the appeal of freemen for 
a " strong man." Time has taught them that no 
event, great in its consequences for good in the 
world, has ever come unattended with a man of 
nerve and strength to direct it, — that nerve and 
strength described by Tennyson, when he mourns 
Wellington, as a man 

"Who never sold the truth to serve the hour; 
Nor paltered with eternal God for power ; 
Who let the turbid streams of rumor flow 
Through either babbling world of high or low; 
Whose life was work, whose language rife 
With rugged maxims hewn from life ; 
Who never spoke against a foe." 

Such a man, if ever, is now a national necessity. 
As the nation moves forward to unfold the genius 
of government born on the deck of " The May- 
flower ; " as she seeks to realize for man the rights 
promulgated in the charter of independence ; as 
she strives to hold to the sublime purpose for 
which the blood of her children was consecrated ; 
and as she struggles for that equality sacredly 
ordained in the amended Constitution, she asks, 
" Who shall lead on ? " The answer is upon the 
lips of millions of patriotic citizens : " Let us once 
more be led by Grant." 



Books of Travel. 



OVER THE OCEAN; 

OK, 

SIGHTS AND SCENES IN FOREIGN LANDS. 

By Curtis Guild, editor of " The Boston Commercial Bulletin." Crown 8va 

Cloth. $2.50. 
" This is certainly a collection of some of the most perfect pen-pictures of sights 
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ABROAD AGAIN; 

OR, 

FRESH FORAYS IN FOREIGN FIELDS. 

Uniform with " Over the Ocean." By the same author. Crown 8vo. Cloth. $2.50. 

AN AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD. 

By Miss Adeline Trafton, author of " His Inheritance," " Katherine Earle," 
&c. i6mo. Illustrated. $1.50. 
" ' The American Girl-' is a bright, good, merry -hearted girl, off for a good time; 
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BEATEN PATHS; 

OR, 

A WOMAN'S VACATION. 

By Ella W. Thompson. i6mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
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talks of them in a charming manner." — Tribune. 

A THOUSAND MILES' WALK ACROSS SOUTH 

AMERICA, 

OVER THE PAMPAS AND THE ANDES. 
By Nathaniel H. Bishop. i2mo. Illustrated. $1.50. 

VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE. 

A Geographical Journey of Twenty-five Hundred Miles from Quebec to the Gulf 
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FOUR MONTHS IN A SNEAK-BOX. 

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CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 

Being the Adventures of a Naturalist Bird-Hunting in the West India Islands. 
By Fred A. Ober. Crown 8vo. With maps and illustrations. 

For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on 

receipt of price. 

LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers Boston 



MISS AMANDA M. DOUGLAS'S NOVELS. 



BETWEEN FRIEND AND SWEETHEART. 

i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
" Amanda Douglas is one of the favorite authors among American novel-readers. 
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FROM HAND TO MOUTH. 

i2mo. Cloth. $150 
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NELLY KINNARD'S KINGDOM. 

i2mo Cloth. $1 50. 
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IN TRUST; 

OR, 

DR. BERTRAND'S HOUSEHOLD. 

i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 

Miss Douglas possesses the genuine art of telling a story naturally and well. 

She is far removed from those sensational novelists whose prurient writings are 

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CLAUDIA. 

i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
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STEPHEN DANE. 

i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
" This is one of this author's happiest and most successful attempts at novel- 
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HOME NOOK; 

OR, 

THE CROWN OF DUTY. 

i2mo. Cloth. -$1.50. 
"An interesting story of home-life, not wanting in incident, and written in 
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SYDNIE ADRIANCE; 

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TRYING THE WORLD. 

i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
" The works of Miss Douglas have stood the test of popular judgment, and be- 
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For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on 

•receipt of price. 

LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers Boston. 



